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the Alchemist, 

* From the French of 

HoNORE De Balzac 


I Ledger Library. 
No. 25. “ 




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HE Forsaken Inn. 

By ANNA "KATHARINE GREEN. 

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Anna Katharine Green’s novel, The Forsaken Inn,” is ad- 
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THE ALCHEMIST, 


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THE ALCHEMIST. 


TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF 


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Honore De Balzac. 


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WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY F. A. CARTER. 

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NEW YORK: 

ROBERT BONNER’S SONS 


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PUBLISHERS. 


THE LEDGER LIBRARY: ISSUED SEMI-MONTHLY. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE, TWELVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM. NO. 25, 
NOVEMBER 15, 1890. ENTERED AT THE NEW YORK, N. Y., POST OFFICE AS SECOND CLASS MAIL MATTER. 


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COPYEIGHT, 1890, 

By ROBERT BONNER’S SONS. 


(All rights reserved.) 



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NEW YORK. 



THE ALCHEMIST. 


T Douay, in the Rue de Paris, 
stands a house the external ap- 
pearance and domestic arrange- 
ments of which have preserved, 
more than those of any other 
dwelling, the character of the old 
Flemish architecture, — a style 
admirably adapted to the patri- 
archal manners of that excellent 
country. But before describing 
this mansion, we ought, perhaps, to establish, in the 
interest of authors, the necessity of those didactic 
preparations against which a certain class of readers 
protest — a class of ignorant and voracious persons 
who expect emotions without passing through the 
generating principle, who ask for the flower with- 
out the seed, the fruit without the growth. Can 
Art be expected to be more potent than Nature } 
The events of human life, whether public or 



8 


The Alchemist, or 


private, are so intimately connected with architec- 
ture, that most observers can reconstruct nations or 
individuals, in all their lineaments, from the remains 
of their public monuments or by examining their 
domestic relics. Archeology is to social nature 
what comparative anatomy is to organized nature. 
A mosaic reveals a whole state of society, as a 
skeleton of the ichthyosaurus implies a whole crea- 
tion. In either case, the deduction is complete and 
the concatenation perfect. The cause reveals the 
effect, as every effect enables us to ascend to the 
cause. The sage thus raises the old ages from the 
dead, perfect even in their blemishes. Hence, doubt- 
less, the intense interest inspired by an architectural 
description, when the fancy of the writer does not 
distort the elements of which it is composed. Every 
one is able, with a rigid system of deduction, to link 
such a description with the past, and, in human life, 
the past singularly resembles the future. To 
recount to man what was, is almost always telling 
him what will be. In short, the description of 
places where life is spent generally recalls to every 
one either his disappointhients or his budding hopes. 
The comparison bet^^eh the present that deceives 
our secret wishes and the future that may realize 
them, is an inexhaustible source of melancholy or of 
placid joy. 

For this reason, it is almost impossible to avoid 
being touched by a picture of Flemish life, when 
the accessories are well rendered. And why? It 



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The House of Claes. 


9 


is, perhaps, because Flemish life of all others most 
conclusively settles man’s uncertainties. We do not 
mean to say that it dispenses with holidays and with 
family ties; or that it does not enjoy a sumptuous 
ease that attests an enduring comfort, or a repose 
that resembles felicity : but it expresses in an 
especial manner the monotony and calm of a purely 
sensuous happiness wherein enjoyment stifles desire 
by always anticipating it. Whatever value an 
impassioned man may attach to the agitations of 
the sentiments, he never views without emotion the 
phases of a social state in which the beating of the 
heart is so well regulated that superficial people 
complain of its coldness. The crowd generally 
prefers the force that bursts its banks to the force 
that flows in a persistent stream. They have neither 
time nor patience to measure the power that lies 
concealed beneath an unvarying exterior. In order, 
then, to make an impression upon the crowd that is 
carried away by the current of life, passion, like a 
great artist, has no other resource than to go beyond 
the mark, like Michael Angelo, Bianca Capello, 
Mademoiselle de la VallieVe, Beethoven and Pag- 
anini. The deeply calculating alone think it never 
judicious to pass beyond the mark, and have res- 
pect only for the virtuality manifested in a perfect 
accomplishment, which puts into every work that 
profound calm so captivating to superior men. 
Now, the life adopted by this essentially economic 
people entirely fulfils the conditions of felicity 


lO 


The Alchemist, or 


imagined by the masses as characteristic of the life 
of citizens and burghers. 

The most exquisite materiality is stamped upon 
all the habits of the Flemings. What is called 
English comfort is dry and hard in its tone ; whilst 
in Flanders the old domestic interior rejoices the eye 
with soothing colors, with a true simplicity: it 
implies work without fatigue ; the pipe denotes a 
happy application of the Neapolitan far-niente ; and 
it argues a placid sentiment of art, combined with 
patience, its most necessary condition, and con- 
science, the element that renders its creations dur- 
able. The Flemish character is expressed by these 
two words, pq^ence and consilience, which seem to 
exclude the rich shades of poetry and to make the 
manners of the country as flat as its wide plains, and 
as cold as its foggy skies. Nevertheless it is not so. 
Civilization has there exhibited its power, by modi- 
fying everything, even the effects of climate. If we 
attentively observe the products of different coun- 
tries of the world, we are at first surprised to see 
gray and dull colors especially assigned to the pro- 
ducts of the temperate zone, whilst the most brilliant 
hues mark those of warm countries. Manners must 
necessarily be in harmony with this law of nature. 
The Flemings, who were formerly essentially sombre 
and devoted to neutral tints, have learned the art of 
throwing splendor into their smoky atmosphere from 
the political vicissitudes that have successively sub- 
jected them to the Burgundians, the Spanish, and the 


The House of Claes. 


1 1 


French, and have made them fraternize with the Ger- 
mans and the Dutch. From Spain they have 
imbibed a taste for the luxury of scarlets, brilliant 
satins, bright tapestries, plumes, guitars, and the 
forms of courtesy. From Venice they have received, 
in exchange for their linens and laces, those fantas- 
tic glasses wherein wine acquires a new splendor to 
the eye and seems better to the taste. From Austria 
they have derived an acquaintance with that heavy 
diplomacy which, according to a popular saying, 
takes three steps in a bushel basket. Commerce 
with the Indies has brought them the grotesque in- 
ventions of China and the wonders of Japan. Never- 
theless, in spite of their patience in collecting every- 
thing, in returning nothing, in enduring all things, 
the Flemings could be regarded as little else than 
the general store-house of Europe, till the moment 
when the discovery of tobacco soldered together in 
smoke the scattered features of their national physi- 
ognomy. Henceforth, in spite of the parcelling 
out of their territory the Flemish people existed by 
pipe and pot. 

After having assimilated, by the constant economy 
of its conduct, the riches and the ideas of its masters 
or its neighbors, this country, by nature so dull and 
destitute of poetry, shaped for itself a new life and 
characteristic manners, without seeming to have 
been infected with servility. Art there lost all 
ideality and its sole product was Form. So do not 
Jcok in this country for plastic poetry, seek neither the 


The Alchemisty or 


I 2 


vivacity of comedy nor dramatic action, neither the 
bold flights of the epic or the ode, nor the genius of 
music ; but it is fruitful in discoveries, in learned 
discussions that require both time and the lamp. 

^ Everything bears the stamp of temporal enjoyment. 
The Fleming sees exclusively what is, his thought is 
bent so scrupulously to serving the needs of life, that 
in no labor does it take a flight beyond the visible 
world. The sole idea of the future conceived by 
this people was a sort of economy in politics, their 
revolutionary force sprang from a domestic desire 
to have elbow-room at table and complete ease 
beneath their awnings. The sentiment of comfort, 
that spirit of independence inspired by fortune, begot 
there, more than elsewhere, that need of liberty 
which subsequently agitated Europe. So the con- 
stancy of their ideas, and the tenacity given by edu- 
cation to the Flemings, made them in former times 
men redoubtable in defense of their rights. Among 
these people nothing is done by halves, neither the 
building of houses, nor the making of furniture, nor 
the digging of ditches, nor the cultivation of the 
soil, nor the conduct of a revolt. They hold the 
monopoly, too, of what they undertake. The manu- 
facture of lace and the production of their linen, a 
work requiring patient agriculture and more patient 
industry, are hereditary like their family fortunes. 
If it were necessary to paint constancy under the 
purest human form, we could not do better perhaps 
than to take the portrait of a good burgomaster of 


The House of Claes. 


13 


the Netherlands, capable, as many examples prove, 
of dying like a bourgeois and without glory, for the 
benefit of his Hanse. But the sweet poetry of this 
patriarchal life will naturally be found in the picture 
of one of the last of these houses which, at the time 
when this history begins, still preserved their char- 
acter at Douay. 

Of all the cities of the department of the Nord, 
Douay is, alas ! the one most modernized, where 
innovation has made the most rapid conquests, 
where the love of social progress is most diffused. 
The old buildings are disappearing day by day, the 
antique manners are rapidly passing away. The 
taste, the fashions and the manners of Paris prevail 
there ; and the Douay sians will soon have nothing 
of the ancient Flemish life left but the cordiality of 
its hospitality, its Spanish courtesy, the wealth and 
the neatness of Holland. White-stone mansions will 
have taken the place of houses of red brick. The 
ample opulence of Batavian forms will have given 
way before the fleeting elegance of new French 
fashions. 

The house in which the events of this history took 
place may be found near the middle of the rue de 
Paris, and has borne at Douay, for more than two 
hundred years, the name of the House of Claes. 
The Van Claeses were formerly one of the most 
celebrated of those families of artizans, to which the 
Netherlands owed that commercial supremacy, in 
several products, which they have preserved to the 


14 


The Alchemist, or 


present hour. For a long time, the Claeses in the 
city of Ghent were the chiefs of the powerful guild 
of weavers. At the time of the revolt of this great 
city against Charles V, who wished to abrogate its 
privileges, the richest of the Claeses was so deeply 
compromised that, foreseeing a catastrophe and 
forced to share the lot of his companions, he secretly 
sent his wife, his children and his riches to France, 
before the emperor’s troops had invested the city. 
The apprehensions of this syndic of the weavers 
were not without foundation. He, as well as several 
other citizens, was deprived of the right of capitula- 
tion and hung as a rebel, whilst he was in reality the 
defender of the independence of Ghent. The death 
of Claes and his companions bore its fruits. Subse- 
quently these useless executions cost the King of 
Spain the greater part of his possessions in the 
Netherlands. Of all seeds confided to the earth the 
blood of martyrs bears the speediest harvest. When 
Philip II, who punished revolt even to the second 
generation, extended his iron scepter over Douay, 
the Claeses preserved their immense property by an 
alliance with the very noble family of Molina, the 
elder branch of which, then poor, became rich 
enough to purchase the earldom of Nourho, of which 
it held only the title, in the kingdom of Leon. 

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, after 
vicissitudes of too little interest to be recounted 
here, the family of Claes was represented, in the 
branch established at Douay, by Balthazar Claes- 


The House of Claes, 


15 


Molina, Count of Nourho, who preferred, however, 
to go by the simple name of Balthazar Claes. Of 
the immense fortune amassed by his ancestors, who 
had worked fully a thousand looms, there remained 
to Balthazar an income of about fifteen thousand 
francs a year, from ground rents, in the town of 
Douay, and the house on the rue de Paris, the furni- 
ture of which alone was worth a fortune. As to the 
property in the kingdom of Leon, it had been the 
subject of litigation between the Molinas of Flanders 
and that branch of the family which remained in 
Spain. The Molinas of Leon gained the domains 
and assumed the title of counts of Nourho, although 
the Claeses alone had the right to bear it ; but the 
vanity of the Belgian bourgeoisie was superior to 
the Castilian pride. So, when the civil state was 
established, Balthazar Claes laid aside the tatters of 
his Spanish nobility for his grand distinction among 
the citizens of Ghent. 

The feeling of patriotism is so strong among exiled 
families, that till the very close of the eighteenth 
century, the Claeses had remained faithful to their 
traditions, to their manners and customs. They 
intermarried with none but families of the purest 
bourgeoisie ; they required a certain number of 
aldermen and burgomasters on the side of the bride 
in order to admit her into their family. In short, 
they sought wives at Bruges or Ghent, at Liege or 
in Holland, for the purpose of perpetuating the cus- 
toms of their domestic hearth. Towards the close 


/ 


1 6 • The Alchemist, or 


of the last century, their circle of acquaintances, 
which had been growing narrower and narrower, 
was limited to seven or eight families of municipal 
nobility, whose customs, whose voluminous togas, 
whose half-Spanish magisterial dignity, were quite 
in harmony with their habits. The inhabitants of 
the city felt for this family a sort of religious respect, 
which amounted to more than a strong prepossession. 
The unfailing honesty, the spotless loyalty of the 
Claeses, their invariable decorum, made the people 
of the place regard them with a superstition as 
inveterate as that felt for the feast-day of a local 
saint, and well expressed in the single phrase — “ the 
Claes family.” The whole spirit of ancient Flanders 
was concentrated in their mansion, which offered 
amateurs of antiquities the type of the modest dwell- 
ings built by the wealthy burghers in the Middle 
Ages. 

The principal ornament of the facade was a 
double-door in oak, embellished with nails arranged 
in the form of a V, in the centre of which the 
Claeses had complacently carved two shuttles 
leashed together. The door-way, which was built 
of sand-stone, terminated in a pointed arch that sup- 
ported a small lantern surmounted by a wooden 
cross, and enclosing a statuette of Saint Genevieve 
clasping her distaff. Although time had thrown its 
color over the delicate work of this door and lan- 
tern, yet the extreme care bestowed upon it by the 
occupants of the house enabled the passers-by to 


The Hotise of Claes. 


1 / 


appreciate all the details. The casements, composed 
of - grouped columns, preserved a dark-gray color 
and were so brilliant that one would have supposed 
they had been varnished. At the sides of the door 
were two windows, on the ground-floor, similar to 
all the rest in the house. The white-stone frames of 
these windows terminated below in a richly orna- 
mented shell, above in two arcades separated from 
each other by the upright portion of the cross which 
divided the sash into four unequal parts, for the bar 
placed at the desired altitude to represent a cross, 
gave to the two lower sides of the window a dimen- 
sion almost double that of the upper parts which 
were rounded off by their arches. This double 
arcade was ornamented by three tiers of bricks over- 
lapping each other, and so laid that each alternate 
brick projected or receded about an inch, saw- 
fashion. The panes of glass, small and lozenge- 
shaped, were set in iron frames, which were 
extremely delicate and painted red. The walls, 
built of brick laid with wTite mortar, were sup- 
ported at intervals by stone ties. There were five 
windows in the first story; only three in the second, 
while the attic was lighted by a large round opening 
in five compartments, bordered with sand-stone, and 
placed in the middle of the triangular frieze 
described by the gable, like the rose in the portal of 
a cathedral. At the apex of the gable stood, like a 
weather-cock, a distaff bound with flax. The two 
sides of the great triangle formed b}^ the wall of the 


i8 


The Alchemisty or 


gable were cut off square by a sort of steps to the 
crown of the first story, where, on the right and left 
of the house, fell the rain water, ejected from the 
mouth of a fantastic animal. At the foot of the 
house a layer of sand-stone resembled a stepping- 
stone. As a last vestige of ancient customs, on 
each side of the door, between the two windows, 
was a wooden trap strengthened by bars of iron, by 
which admittance was gained to the cellars. 

From the day of its erection, the facade was care- 
fully cleaned twice a year. Did the smallest morsel 
of mortar escape from a joint, the hole was filled up 
immediately. The windows, the supports, the stones, 
— all were dusted more carefully than the most 
precious statues are dusted in Paris. This house- 
front, therefore, presented no traces of decay. In 
spite of the deep colors due to the very age of the 
brick, it was as well preserved as an old picture or 
the old cherished book of an amateur, which would 
always remain new if they did not undergo, beneath 
the blistering power of our atmosphere, the influ- 
ence of gases the noxiousness of which threatens 
even ourselves. The cloudy sky, the humid climate 
of Flanders, and the shadows caused by the narrow- 
ness of the streets, very often removed from this 
building the lustre which it owed to its extreme 
cleanliness, and which, besides, rendered it cold and 
sombre to the eye. A poet would have liked some 
vegetation in the openings of the lantern, or some 
mosses in the chinks of the sand-stone ; he would 


The House of Claes. 


^9 


have desired some cracks in the rows of bricks ; or 
would have asked that under the arcades of the win- 
dows some swallow might have built her nest in the 
triple red cells which adorned them. Thus the 
finish, the extremely clean appearance of this facade^ 
half rubbed away by friction, gave it a coldly 
respectable and decently worthy aspect, which cer- 
tainly would have driven away any romantic youth 
who might have taken up his lodgings opposite to 
it. When a visitor had pulled the twisted-wire bell- 
cord that hung down the door frame, and a servant 
from within had opened one of the leaves, in the 
middle of which was a small wicket, this leaf imme- 
diately escaped from his hand, carried by its weight, 
and fell back, making, beneath the arches of a 
spacious paved passage-way, and in the depths of 
the house, a loud, dull sound, as if the door had been 
of bronze. This passage-way, painted like marble, 
always fresh, and covered with a sprinkling of fine 
sand, led to a large, square, interior court, paved in 
large varnished squares of a greenish color. On the 
left were the linen-room, the kitchens, the servants’ 
hall ; on the right were the wood-house, the coal- 
magazine, and the offices, the doors, windows, and 
walls of which were ornamented with designs that 
were kept exquisitely neat. The light, passing 
between four walls of red striped with white, con- 
tracted rosy reflections and hues which lent to the 
human face and to the least details a mysterious 
grace and fantastic appearance. 


20 


The Alchemist, 07 '' 


A second house, exactly similar to the building- 
standing on the street, and which, in Flanders, bears 
the name of the back-quarter, stood at the end of this 
court, and was used exclusively as the residence of 
the family. On the ground floor the first apartment 
was a parlor, lighted by two windows opening on 
the court, and by two others looking into a garden 
exactly as wide as the house. Two parallel glass 
doors led, one into the garden, and the other into 
the court, and corresponded with the street-door, so 
that a stranger, on entering, could take in at a glance 
the whole of the house, and see even the foliage 
which tapestried the depths of the garden. The 
front house, intended for receptions, the second story 
of which contained apartments for strangers, cer- 
tainly exhibited objects of art and great accumulated 
wealth ; but nothing, in the eyes of a Claes, or in the 
judgment of a connoisseur, could equal the treasures 
which ornamented the room in which, for two 
centuries, the life of the family had been passed. 
The Claes who died for the cause of Ghentish lib- 
erty — the artizan of whom too mean an idea would 
be formed if the historian omitted to state that he 
possessed nearly forty thousand silver marks, earned 
in the manufacture of the sails required by the all- 
powerful Venetian navy — this Claes had a friend in 
the celebrated wood carver. Van Huysium of 
Bruges. Many times had the artist dipped into the 
purse of the artizan. A little while before the revolt 
of Ghent, Van Huysium, then rich, had secretly 


The House of Claes. 21 

carved for his friend a piece of woodwork, in mas- 
sive ebony, in which were represented the principal 
scenes of the life of Artevelde, the brewer who had 
been for an hour king of Flanders. This, composed 
of sixty panels, contained about fourteen hundred 
principal personages, and was esteemed the master- 
piece of Van Huysium. The captain charged with 
the custody of the citizens whom Charles V. had 
decided to hang on the day of his entrance into his 
native city, offered, it is said, to allow Van Claes to 
escape, if he would give him this work of Van 
Huysium’s; but the weaver had sent it to France. 
The parlor, entirely wainscoted with these panels, 
which, out of respects for the manes of the martyr. 
Van Huysium himself came to frame in wood 
painted in ultramarine striped with gold, is the 
most complete work of this master, whose smallest 
productions are now worth almost their weight in 
gold. 

Above the mantelpiece. Van Claes, painted by 
Titian, in his costume of president of the tribunal of 
the Parchons, seemed still to reign over this family, 
which venerated him as its most illustrious man. 
The chimney-piece, primitively of stone, with a high 
mantelshelf, had been reconstructed in white marble, 
in the last century, and supported an old time-piece, 
and two candlesticks with five twisted branches 
each, in very bad taste, but of massive silver. The 
four windows were hung with large curtains of red 
damask, with black flowers, lined with white silk, 


22 


The Alchemist, or 


and the furniture, which was of the same stuff, had 
been renewed under Louis XIV. The floor, evi- 
dently modern, was composed of large slabs of white- 
wood, framed in strips of oak. The ceiling, formed 
of several panels, at the centre of which w^as a 
grotesque mask, carved by Van Huysium, had been 
respected, and preserved its brown tints of Holland 
oak. At the four corners of this parlor, stood trun- 
cated columns, surmounted by candlesticks similar 
to those on the mantelpiece ; a round table occupied 
the centre. Along the walls card tables were sym- 
metrically arranged. Upon two gilded consoles 
with marble tops, were placed, at the period when 
our history commences, two glass globes filled with 
water, in which, over a bed of sand and shells, swam 
red, gold and silver fish. This apartment was at 
once brilliant and gloomy. The ceiling necessarily 
absorbed the light, without reflecting any. Though 
there was plenty of light on the garden side, though 
it fell twinkling on the carvings of the ebony, the 
windows towards the court yielded scarcely enough 
to bring out the strips of gold on the wall opposite. 
This parlor, then, so magnificent on a fine day, was 
generally filled with such soft tints and red and 
melancholy tones as the sun sheds on the tops of the 
forests in autumn. It is useless to continue the 
description of the House of Claes, in other parts of 
which many of the scenes of this history will neces- 
sarily take place ; it is sufficient, at present, to have 
a knowledge of its general arrangement. 


The House of Claes. 


23 


In 1812, towards the close of the month of August, 
on a Sunday, after vespers, a woman was seated in 
her arm-chair at one of the garden windows. The 
rays of the sun fell obliquely upon the house, taking 
it, as it were, in flank, crossed the parlor, expired in 
grotesque reflections upon the wainscot that tapes- 
tried the walls on the side towards the court, and 
enveloped this woman in the purple zone projected 
by the damask curtain draped down the window. 
Even an ordinary painter, who at this moment might 
have copied this woman, would certainly have pro- 
duced a striking work, with a head so expressive of 
grief and melancholy. The attitude of the body, 
and that of the feet, which were thrown forward, 
indicated the dejection of a person who has lost the 
consciousness of her physical being in the concen- 
tration of her faculties, absorbed by one fixed 
thought ; she was following its radiation into the 
future, as we often, on the seashore, look at a ray of 
the sun which pierces the clouds and describes a 
luminous track towards the horizon. Her hands, 
thrown back by the arms of the easy chair, hung 
down on each side, and her head, as if too heavy, 
rested on the back. A very ample dress of white 
cambric muslin rendered it difficult to judge of her 
size and form, while her bust was concealed beneath 
the folds of a scarf, crossed over her bosom and neg- 
ligently tied. Even if the light had not thrown her 
countenance into relief, which it seemed to do in 
preference to the rest of her person, it would have 


24 


The Alchemist, or 


been impossible at that moment not to have been at- 
tracted by the face exclusively; its expression, 
which would have struck the most careless child, 
was a persistent, cold stupefaction, in spite of a few 
scalding tears. 

Nothing is more terrible to behold than that 
extreme grief which overflows only at rare intervals, 
but the traces of which remained upon her face like 
lava congealed around a volcano. One would have 
called her a dying mother, obliged to leave her 
children in a gulf of misery, without the power of 
bequeathing them any human protection. The phy- 
siognomy of this lady, who was about forty years ot 
age, but then much nearer beauty than she had ever 
been in her youth, exhibited none of the character- 
istics of a Flemish woman. A thick mass of black 
hair fell in curls down her cheeks upon her shoul- 
ders. Her brow, very prominent, and narrow at the 
temples, was inclined to yellow, but beneath that 
brow sparkled two black eyes which emitted fire. 
Her countenance, which was quite Spanish, brown 
in tone and with very little color, and was ravaged 
by the small-pox, arrested attention by the perfection 
of its oval form, the contours of which preserved, in 
spite of the alterations of the lines, a finish of 
majestic elegance, which sometimes wholly reap- 
peared when any effort of the mind restored to it 
its primitive purity. The most marked feature of 
this masculine countenance was a nose curved like 
the beak of an eagle, and which, too prominent 


The House of Claes. 


25 


towards the middle, appeared to be ill-formed with- 
in ; but there was in it an indescribable elegance ; the 
division between the nostrils was so thin that its 
transparency allowed the light to tinge it strongly. 
Although the large and well-curved lips bespoke the 
pride inspired by high birth, they were stamped 
with a natural goodness, and breathed politeness. 
The beauty of this face, at once vigorous and femin- 
ine, might have been contested, but it commanded 
attention. Short, hump-backed, and lame, this 
woman remained the longer single because people 
persisted in denying her intelligence ; nevertheless, 
there had been many men who were strongly moved 
by the passionate ardor expressed by her head, and 
by the evidences of inexhaustible tenderness, and 
who remained bound by a spell irreconcilable with 
so many defects. She very much resembled ifer 
great grandfather, the duke of Casa Real, a grandee 
of Spain. 

At this moment, the charm which had formerly 
taken such despotic hold on poetical hearts, beamed 
around her face more powerfully than at any period 
of her past life, and exercised itself, thus to speak, 
in air, by expressing a fascinating will, omnipotent 
over men, but without power over destiny. When 
her eyes wandered from the glass globe in which 
she had looked at the fishes without seeing them, 
she raised them, with a movement of despair, as if 
to invoke Heaven. Her sufferings were of that 
kind which can be confided to none but God. The 


26 


The Alchemist, or 


silence was broken by nothing but by the chirping 
of crickets and grasshoppers in the little garden 
from which streamed an oven-like heat, and by the 
dull reverberation of silver, plates and chairs in the 
room contiguous to the parlor, where a servant was 
laying the cloth for dinner. At this moment, the 
afflicted lady listened and appeared to collect her- 
self ; she took out her handkerchief, wiped away 
her tears, endeavored to smile, and succeeded so 
well in effacing the expression of grief engraven on 
all her features, that she might have been thought 
in that state of indifference in which we are left by 
a life exempt from cares. Whether the habit of living 
in this house to which her infirmities confined her, 
had enabled her to discover in it natural effects 
imperceptible to others, and which persons that are 
a prey to extreme feelings eagerly seek, or whether 
nature had compensated for so many physical defects 
by giving her more delicate sensations than to beings 
in appearance more happily organized, this woman 
had heard the step of a man in a gallery built over 
the kitchens and offices, and by which the house in 
front communicated with the house in the rear. 

The sound of steps became more and more dis- 
tinct. Soon, even a stranger, not possessed of the 
power with which a passionate creature, like this 
woman, often succeeds in annihilating space to unite 
with another self, might have easily heard the steps 
of this man on the stairs by which persons descended 
from the gallery into the parlor. At the sound of 


The House of Claes, 


27 


these steps the attention of the most indifferent 
would have been riveted, for .it was impossible to 
hear them unmoved. A precipitate or an unequal 
step alarms us. When a man springs up and cries 
‘‘ Fire !” his feet speak as loudly as his voice. If 
such be the case, an opposite kind of step should 
cause no less powerful emotions. The grave sol- 
emnity, the dragging step of this man might, with- 
out doubt, have made unreflecting people impatient ; 
but an observer or a nervous person would have 
experienced a feeling akin to terror at the measured 
tread of feet, from which life appeared absent, and 
which made the floor creak as if two iron weights had 
struck them alternately. You might have recog- 
nized the heavy and undecided step of an old man, 
or the majestic walk of a thinker, who carries worlds 
about with him. When he had descended the last 
step, planting his feet on the pavement with hesitat- 
ing action, he remained an instant on the landing 
from which the passage led to the servants’ hall, and 
from which there was also an entrance to the parlor 
by a door concealed in the woodwork, like that 
which opened into the dining-room. 

At this moment a slight trembling, comparable to 
the sensation caused by an electric spark, agitated 
the woman seated in the arm-chair ; but the softest 
smile at the same time animated her lips, and her 
countenance, moved by the expectation of pleasure, 
was resplendent as that of a beautiful Italian 
madonna ; she found strength suddenly to drive her 


The Alchemist, or 


terrors down to the depths of her heart, then turned 
her head towards the panels of the door, which was 
about to open in the angle of the parlor, and was, 
in fact, pushed with such violence that the poor 
creature seemed to receive a shock from it. 

Balthaza Claes came in abruptly, advanced a few 
paces, did not look at the woman, or if he did look 
at her, did not see her, and stood upright in the 
middle of the parlor, supporting his head, which 
was slightly inclined, upon his right hand. A horri- 
ble anguish, to which this woman could not accustom 
herself, although it returned frequently every day, 
clutched at her heart, dissipated her smile, and con- 
tracted her brown forehead between the eyebrows 
towards that line furrowed by the frequent expres- 
sion of painful feelings ; her eyes filled with tears, 
but she dried them quickly, looking at Balthazar. 

It was impossible not to be powerfully struck by 
the appearance of this head of the Claes family. 
When young, he must have resembled the sublime 
martyr who threatened Charles V. with a revival of 
Artevelde ; but at this moment he appeared more 
than sixty years of age, although he was not over 
fifty, and his premature old age had destroyed any 
such noble resemblance. His lofty figure was a 
little bent, either from his labors obliging him to 
stoop, or from the spinal column becoming curved 
with the weight of his head. He had a broad chest 
and a square bust, but the lower portions of his body 
were lank^ although nervous ; and this discord in an 


The House of Claes. 


29 


organization, evidently perfect once, puzzled the 
mind that endeavored to explain by some singularity 
in his life, the reasons of this fantastic form. His 
abundant white hair, ill cared for, fell upon his 
shoulders in the German fashion, but in a di^rder 
harmonizing with the gen eral ne glect of his person. 
His large forehead presented the protuberances in 
which Gall has placed the poetical world. His 
eyes, of a clear, rich blue, had that keen vivacity 
which is remarked am ong seekers of ocenit enii.qe .s. 
His nose, doubtless once perfect, had become elon- 
gated, and the nostrils seemed to open gradually 
more and more, by an involuntary tension of the 
olfactory muscles. His shaggy cheek-bones were 
very prominent, and for this reason his already 
withered cheeks appeared all the more hollow ; his 
graceful mouth was closed in between his nose and 
a short, sharply prominent chin. The form of his 
face was, however, rather long than oval ; so that the 
scientific system which attributes to every human 
countenance a resemblance to the face of .an animal, 
might have found an additional proof in that of 
Balthazar Claes, which might have been compared 
to the head of a. horse. His skin clung to his bones 
as if some secret fire was continually parching it ; 
and when at intervals he gazed into space, as if to 
find there the realization of his hopes, one would 
have said that he breathed from his nostrils the flame 
which devoured his soul. 

The profound feelings that animate great men 


30 


The Alchemisty 07 '‘ 


breathed in that pale face so deeply furrowed with 
wrinkles, upon that brow contracted like that of an 
old care-worn king, but, above all, in those sparkling 
eyes, the fire of which appeared equally increased 
by the chastity enforced by the tyranny of an idea, 
and by the internal heat of a vast intellect. His eyes, 
deeply buried in their sockets, appeared to have 
become sunken solely by sleepless nights and the 
terrible reactions of a hope always deceived, always 
reviving. The jealous, fanaticism which art and 
science inspire, betrayed itself still further in this 
man by a singular and constant distraction, of which 
his appearance and behavior gave evidence, in 
accordance with the magnificent monstrosity of his 
physiognomy. His large hairy hands were dirty, 
his long nails had deep black lines at their extremi- 
ties. His shoes were either not cleaned, or wanted 
strings. Of all his household, the master alone 
could allow himself the strange license of being so 
untidy. His soiled black cloth trousers, his unbut- 
toned waistcoat, his cravat put on a-wry, and his 
green coat, always ripped, completed a fantastic 
ensemble of little things and great things, which, in 
another person, would have revealed the misery 
engendered by vice, but in Balthazar Claes was 
merely the neglect of genius. Too frequently vice 
and genius produce the same effects and the vulgar 
mistake one for the other. Is not genius a constant 
excess which devours time, money, and the body, 
and leads to the hospital more rapidly than evil 


The House of Claes. 


31 


passions ? Men even appear to have less respect for 
genius than for vice, for they refuse to trust it. It 
would seem that the benefits of the secret labors of 
the savant are considered such a long way off, that 
society declines having any pecuniary relations with 
him during his lifetime, and prefers settling its 
account by neither pardoning his wants nor his mis- 
fortunes. 

In spite of his continual forgetfulness of the 
present, if Balthazar Claes quitted for a moment his 
mysterious contemplations, if some kindly and social 
intention reanimated that pensive countenance, if his 
fixed eyes lost their rigid state to express a human 
feeling, if he looked around him on returning to real 
and common life, it was difficult not to render invol- 
untary homage to the seductive beauty of that face, 
to the gracious spirit that beamed in it. Thus every 
one, on seeing him at such a time, regretted that he 
no longer belonged to the world, saying, “ He must 
have been very handsome in his youth A vulgar 
error ! Never had Balthazar Claes been more poetic 
than he was at this moment. Lavater would have 
been delighted to study that head, so expressive of 
patience, Flem^^ loyalt}^ and candid morality, in 
which everything was broad and grand, in which 
passion seemed calm because it was strong. The 
morals of this man must have been pure, his word 
was sacred, his friendship appeared undeviating, his 
devotion, in case of need, would have been complete. 
But the will which employs these qualities in behalf 


32 


The Alchemist, 


of one’s country, of the world, or of one’s family, 
was fatally turned in another direction.^ This citizen, 
under obligations to watch over the welfare of a 
household, to economize a fortune, to guide his 
children towards a happy future, lived beyond the 
pale of his duties and affections, in association with 
some familiar genius. To a priest he would have 
appeared full of the word of God; an artist would 
have saluted him as a great master ; an enthusiast 
would have taken him for a seer of the Swedenbor- 
gian church. 

At this moment, the dilapidated, mean, neglected 
costume which this man wore, contrasted singularly 
with the tasteful dress of the woman who so pain- 
fully admired him. Deformed persons, who possess 
intellect or a lofty soul, generally display great taste 
in their toilet. They either dress simply, perceiving 
that their sole charm must be moral, or they succeed 
in obliterating the defects of their form by a sort of 
elegance in the details which diverts the eye, and 
occupies the mind. Not only had this woman a 
generous soul, but, still further, she loved Balthazar 
Claes with that instinct of woman which gives a fore- 
taste of the intelligence of angels. Brought up in 
one of the most illustrious families of Belgium, she 
would have acquired taste if she had not been born 
with it ; but enlightened by the desire of constantly 
pleasing the man she loved, she knew how to dress 
becomingly, without allowing her elegance to clash 
with her two defects of conformation. Her boddice, 



“'WHY SHOULD THEY XOT COMBINE IN A GIVEN TIME?”— <S'ee Pa{je 84 



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The House of Claes, 


33 


moreover, was only imperfect in the shoulders, one 
being visibly larger than the other. She looked 
through the windows into the interior court, then 
into the garden, to make sure that she was alone 
with Balthazar, and then said to him in a soft voice, 
and with a look full of that submission which dis- 
tinguishes Flemish woman — for love had long since 
driven from between them the pride of the Spanish ^ 
grandee : 

“ Balthazar, you must be very busy ! This is the 
thirty-third Sunday since you have been at either 
mass or vespers.” 

Claes made no reply ; his wife bowed her head, 
clasped her hands and waited ; she knew that this 
silence denoted neither contempt nor disdain, but a 
tyrannical preoccupation. Balthazar was one of 
those who retain for a long time their juvenile 
delicacy in the depths of their hearts ; he would have 
deemed it criminal to express the least thought that 
could wound the feelings of a woman oppressed by 
the consciousness of her physical defects. He alone, 
perhaps, among men, knew th^t a word, a look, will 
blot out years of happiness, and are all the more 
cruel from their stronger contrast with an abiding 
gentleness ; for our nature leads us to derive greater 
pain from a dissonance in felicity than we derive 
pleasure from a joy in misfortune. A few moments 
after, Balthazar seemed to awaken, looked anxiously 
around him, and said : — 

“ Vespers ! ah ! the children are at vespers.” 


34 


The Alchemist, or 


He advanced a few steps to cast his eyes into the 
garden, where were numerous magnificent tulips ; 
but he stopped all at once, as if he had run against a 
wall, and cried : 

“ Why should they not combine in a given time?” 

“Is he going mad?” said the woman, with an 
expression of terror. 

To give more interest to the scene to which this 
situation led, it is indispensa’ le to cast a glance upon 
the anterior life of Balthazar Claes and the grand- 
daughter of the Duke of Casa Real. 

About the yeari^,' MTBalthazar Claes-Molina 
de Nourho, then twenty-two years of age, might 
have passed for what in France is called a handsome 
man. He went to Paris to complete his education ; 
he there found excellent manners in the society of 
Madame d’Egmont, the Count de Horn, Prince 
d’Aremberg, the Spanish Ambassador, Helvetius, 
Frenchmen originally from Belgium, or sojourners 
from that country, whose birth and fortune placed 
them among the nobles who at this period were 
leaders of fashion. Young Claes met several rela- 
tions and friends, who launched him into high 
society, at the moment when this society was on the 
eve of its downfall; but, like most young people, he 
was more seduced at the ou tset by glory and science 
than by vanity. He therefore frequented the society 
of the savants, particularly that of Lavoisier, then 
attracting more public attention by the immense 
fortune of a farmer-general than by his discoveries 


The Ho7ise of Claes, 


35 


in chemistry, although, at a later period, the great 
chemist was destined to eclipse the insignificant 
farmer-general. 

Balthazar was soon passionately devoted to the 
science professed by Lavoisier, and became his most 
ardent disciple; but he was young, handsome as 
Helvetius, and the women of Paris soon taught him 
to distil wit and love exclusively. Although he had 
embraced study with ardor, and Lavoisier had given 
him some encouragement, he abandoned his master 
to listen to the queens of taste from whom young 
men took their finishing lessons in the art of life, and 
fashioned themselves to the usages of that lofty 
society, which, in Europe, forms one single family. 
The intoxicating dream of success lasted but a short 
time ; after having breathed the air of Paris, Bal- 
thazar left it, tired of a shallow life, one which 
accorded neither with his ardent mind nor his loving 
heart. Domestic life, so sweet, so calm, of which he 
was reminded by the very name of Flanders, 
appeared to him far more suited to his character and 
to the aspirations of his heart. No gilded Parisian 
salon had effaced the harmonies of the brown parlor 
and the little garden where his infancy had glided 
so happily away. 

A man should have neither fireside nor country, 
to live in Paris. Paris is the city of the cosmopolite, 
or of men who have espoused the world and who 
are perpetually clasping it with the arm of science, ^ 
art or power. The child of Flanders returned to / 


3 ^ 


The Alchemisty or 


Douay, like La Fontaine's pigeon to its nest ; he 
wept with joy at re-entering it on the day of the 
procession of Gayant. Gayant, that superstitious 
good fortune of the whole city, that triumph of 
Flemish recollections, had been introduced upon the 
occasion of the emigration of his family to Douay. 
The death of his father and that of his mother left 
the house of Claes a desert, and occupied him there 
some time. His first grief over, he felt the necessity 
of marrying, in order to complete the happy exist- 
ence of which all the delights had again taken pos- 
session of his mind. He wished to follow the course 
of his family by going, like his ancestors, to seek a 
wife at Ghent, Bruges, or Antwerp ; but none of the 
ladies he met with in those places suited him. He 
had, doubtless, peculiar ideas concerning marriage, 
for he was, from his youth, accused of not walking 
in the common way. One day, at the house of one 
of his relations at Ghent, he heard of a young lady 
who became the object of a warm discussion among 
the guests. Some maintained that the beauty of 
Mademoiselle de Temninck was destroyed by her 
imperfections ; others considered her perfect in spite 
of her defects. The old cousin of Balthazar Claes 
told his guests, that handsome or not, she had a soul 
which would persuade him to marry her, if he were 
of a marrying age ; and he related how she had just 
renounced her share of her father and mother’s 
property, in order to secure for her young brother a 
marriage worthy of his name, thus preferring the 


The 'House of Claes, 


37 


happiness of her brothe^ to her own, and sacrificing* 
her whole life to him. It was not to be supposed 
that Mademoiselle de Temninck would get married, 
now that she was growing old, and had no fortune, 
when she had not had a suitable offer while she was 
young and an heiress. A few days after, Balthazar 
Claes paid his court to Mademoiselle de Temninck, 
then twenty-five years of age, with whom he had 
fallen in love. Josephine de Temninck believed her- 
self the object of a mere caprice, and refused to 
listen to him ; but passion is so communicative, and, 
for a poor deformed and lame girl, a love with which 
she has inspired a young, well-made man, implies 
such great fascination on her part, that she con- 
sented to receive his addresses. 

It would require a whole book adequately to 
describe the love of a young woman, who, while 
humbly submitting to the opinion which pronounces 
her ugly, feels within herself the irresistible charm 
which true sentiment produces. What terrible jeal- 
ousies at the sight of happiness in others, what cruel 
longings for vengeance upon the rival who steals a 
glance, what emotions, what terrors, unknown to the 
majority of women, which would suffer by not being 
fully explained. Doubt, so dramatic in love, would 
be the key to this minute analysis, in which the 
hearts of many would discover the past, but not for- 
gotten, poetry of their first tribulations; or those 
sublime delights in the depths of the soul which the 
countenance never betrays : that fear of not being 


38 


The Alchemist, or 


understood and the boundless joy of having been so ; 
those hesitations of the heart now intent on self-ex- 
amination, and those magnetic projections which 
give the eyes their infinite lights and shades ; those 
plans of suicide suggested by a word and dispelled 
by an intonation of voice as comprehensive as the sen- 
timent of which it reveals the existence, unknown till 
then ; those trembling glances which disguise such 
terrible resolves ; those sudden longings to speak 
and act that their own violence represses ; that 
familiar eloquence which consists of unmeaning 
phrases, uttered in an agitated voice ; the mysterious 
effects of that native purity of soul and that divine 
coyness Avhich makes a woman generous though her 
generosity remain unknown, and gives an exquisite 
relish to an unsuspected love — in short, all the 
charms of love’s young dream, and the very weak- 
nesses of its power. 

Mademoiselle Josephine de Temninck was a 
coquette from greatness of soul. The consciousness 
of her apparent imperfections made her as fastidious 
as the most beautiful person would have been. The 
fear of some day displeasing awakened her pride, 
destroyed her confidence, and gave her the courage 
to guard in the depths of her heart those early felici- 
ties which other women love to publish by their 
manners, and with which they proudly adorn them- 
selves. The closer and more warmly did love impel 
her towards Balthazar, the more timid did she 
become in expressing her feelings to him. The ges- 


The House of Claes, 


39 


ture, the look, the question and answer which in a 
beautiful woman are flattering to a man, were they 
not in her a humiliating speculation ? A handsome 
woman may with impunity always be herself ; the 
world always pardons her for a folly or a blunder ; 
whilst a single look arrests the noblest sentiments on 
the lips of an ugly woman, abashes her eyes, aug- 
ments the ill grace of her gestures, and embarrasses 
her behavior. Does she not know that to her alone 
it is forbidden to commit an error, that every one 
refuses her the chance of repairing it, and that, more- 
over, no one will afford her the opportunity? Must 
not the necessity of being at all times perfect anni- 
hilate her powers or fetter their exercise ? Such a 
woman can only exist in an atmosphere of angelic 
indulgence. Where are the hearts from which 
indulgence flows unstained with a mortifying pity? 

These thoughts, to which the horrible politeness 
of the world had accustomed her, and those regards 
which, more cruel than insults, aggravate misfor- 
tunes by verifying them, oppressed Mademoiselle de 
Temninck, causing a constant restraint which drove 
the most delicious impressions back to her secret 
soul, and stamped her attitude, her speech, and her 
look with coldness. She was in love by stealth ; she 
did not dare to have either eloquence or beauty, 
except in solitude. Unhappy in open day, she would 
have been charming had she been allowed to live 
only by night. Often, in order to test Balthazar’s 
love and at the risk of losing it, she neglected the 


40 


The Alchemist, or 


dress that might, in a degree, have concealed her 
defects. Her Spanish eyes flashed with delight 
when she perceived that Balthazar thought her 
handsome in undress. Nevertheless, distrust spoiled 
the few instants during which she ventured to give 
herself up to happiness. She soon asked herself if 
Claes did not seek to marry her that he might have 
a slave in his house, if he had not some secret defect 
which obliged him to content himself with r\ poor, 
misshapen girl. 

These perpetual anxieties sometimes gave an 
incalculable price to the hours during which she 
believed in the duration and sincerity of a love 
which would avenge her on the world. She pro- 
voked delicate discussions by exaggerating her ugli- 
ness, in order to probe her lover’s conscience, and 
drew from Balthazar truths by no means flattering 
to herself ; but she was pleased with his embarrass- 
ment, when she had brought him to say that what 
was above everything to be loved in woman was a 
beautiful soul, and that devotion which renders the 
days of one’s life so constantly happy ; and that, 
after a few years of marriage, the most charming 
woman on earth becomes, to her husband, no better 
than the ugliest. After having raked together all 
that was true in the paradoxes which tend to dimin- 
ish the value of beauty, Balthazar suddenly became 
aware of the awkwardness of the subject, and dis- 
covered all the goodness of his heart in the delicacy 
of the transitions by which he undertook to prove to 


The House of Claes, 


4-1 


Mademoiseile de Temninck that she was beautiful to 
him. Self-sacrifice, which is, perhaps, in woman, the 
height of love, was not wanting in her, for she des- 
paired of being always loved ; but the prospect of a 
struggle, in which feeling was destined to prevail 
over beauty, tempted her ; and then she thought 
there was something grand in giving herself up 
without believing in love ; in short, she felt it would 
cost her too much to refuse happiness of however 
short duration it might be. These uncertainties and 
combats, communicating the charm and impulse of 
passion to this superior creature, inspired Balthazar 
Claes with an almost chivalric love. 

The marriage took place at the commencement 
of the year 1795. The happy couple went back to 
Douay, to pass the early days of their union in the 
patriarchal residence of the Claeses, the treasures of 
which were increased by Mademoiselle de Temninck, 
who brought with her several fine pictures by 
Murillo and Velasquez, her mother’s diamonds, and 
the magnificent presents sent her by her brother, 
who had become Duke of Casa Real. Few women 
were ever happier than Madame de Claes. Her 
happiness lasted fifteen years without the slightest 
cloud, and, like a brilliant light, it infused itself into 
the minutest details of her existence. 

Most men have inequalities of character that pro- 
duce continual discords; they thus deprive their 
homes of that harmony which is the beau ideal of 
domestic life ; for most men are infected with little- 


42 


The Alchemist, or 


nesses, and littlenesses lead to bickerings. One will 
be honest and active, but hard and rough ; another 
will be kind but obstinate ; this one will love his 
wife, but be capricious ; one that, preoccupied by 
ambition, will discharge his feelings as he would a 
debt ; if he bestows the vanities of fortune, he carries 
away the joys of every-day life ; in short, men of 
medium social character are essentially incomplete, 
without being notably, open to reproach. Men of 
intellect are as variable as barometers, genius alone 
is essentially good. Pure happiness, therefore, is 
only to be met with at the two extremes of the 
moral scale. The good-natured fool, or the man of 
genius, are alone capable, the one from weakness, the 
other from power, of that equality of humor, of that 
constant mildness, in which the asperities of life melt 
gently away. With the one it is indifference and 
inertia ; with the other it is indulgence and a con- 
tinuity of the sublime thought of which he is the 
interpreter, and which must be the same in principle 
and practice. Both are equally simple and ingen- 
uous ; only with the first it is a void, whilst with the 
latter it is depth. Thus women of discernment are 
always disposed to take a fool as the best substitute 
for a great man. 

Balthazar, then, carried his superiority into the 
smallest concerns of life, at first. It was his delight 
to consider conjugal love a magnificent work ; and 
like men of lofty nature who can endure nothing 
imperfect, he wished to unfold all its beauties. Ilis 


The House of Claes. 


43 


wit constantly modified the calmness of happiness ; 
his noble character stamped his attentions with the 
die of grace. Thus, although he partook of the 
philosophical principles of the eighteenth century, 
he installed in his house, up to i8oi, in spite of the 
dangers with which the revolutionary law sur- 
rounded him, a Catholic priest, in order not to 
oppose the Spanish fanaticism which his wife had 
imbibed with her mother’s milk from the Romish 
church ; and when worship was re-established in 
France, he accompanied his wife to mass every 
Sunday. Never did his attachment abandon the 
appearance of passion. Never did he resort, in his 
family, to that protecting power which women love 
so much, because towards his wife it would have 
resembled pity. In short, by the most ingenious 
adulation, he treated her as his equal, and permitted 
some of those amiable mutinies to escape him which 
a man allows himself with a beautiful ivoman, as if 
to brave her superiority. His lips were always 
beaming with a smile of happiness, and his speech 
was always full of sweetness. He loved his Jose- 
phine for herself and for himself with that ardor 
which is a continual eulogy upon the qualities and 
the beauties of a woman. Fidelity, often the effect 
of a social principle, of a scruple, or of calculation 
with husbands, was in him involuntary, and not 
without the sweet flatteries of the spring-time of 
love. Duty was the only obligation of marriage 
unknown to these two equally loving beings ; for 


44 


The Alchemist, or 


Balthazar Claes found in his Josephine a constant 
and complete realization of his hopes. In him, the 
heart was always satisfied without fatigue, and the 
man always happy. 

Not only did her Spanish blood show itself in the 
grand-daughter of the Casa-Reals, by giving her, as 
an instinct, the art of varying pleasure to infinity, 
but she possessed also that boundless devotion which 
is the genius of her sex, as grace is all its beauty. 
Her love was a blind fanaticism, which, at a single 
nod of the head, would have borne her cheerfully 
on to death. Balthazar’s delicacy had exalted in 
her the most generous feelings of the woman, and 
inspired her with an imperious need of giving more 
than she received. This mutual exchange, this 
alternate prodigality of happiness, plainly placed the 
principle of her life outside of herself, and diffused 
an increasing love through her words, her looks, 
and her actions. On both sides gratitude exalted 
and varied the life of the heart ; just as the certainty 
of being everything for each other excluded the 
littlenesses of existence by making its least details 
important. Moreover, is not the deformed woman 
whom her husband thinks straight, the laffie woman 
whom her husband would not have otherwise, or 
the old woman who to her husband appears young, 
are these not the happiest creatures of the feminine 
world ? Human passion can go no further. Is it 
not the glory of a woman to make herself adored 
for what appears a defect? To forget that a lame 


The House of Claes. 


45 


woman does not walk straight is the fascination of a 
moment ; but to love her because she is lame is the 
deification of her deformity. We ought, perhaps, 
to engrave in the Gospel of women this sentence : 
Blessed are the misshapen^ to them belongs the kingdom 
of love I 

Certainly beauty must be a misfortune to a woman, 
for that fragile flower enters too much into the sen- 
timent she inspires ; do not men love a beautiful 
woman just as they marry a rich heiress? But the 
love created or felt by a woman disinherited of all 
the fragile charms after which the children of Adam 
run, is the true love, the truly mysterious passion, an 
ardent embrace of souls, a sentiment for which the 
day of disenchantment never comes. Such a woman 
has graces unknown to the world, from the control 
of which she withdraws herself ; she is beautiful at 
the proper time, and reaps too much glory from 
making a husband forget her imperfections, not to 
succeed constantly in doing so. Thus, the most cel- 
ebrated attachments in history were almost all 
inspired by ^women in whom the vulgar would have 
discovered blemishes. Cleopatra, Joan of Naples, 
Diane de Poictiers, Mademoiselle de la Valliere, 
Madame de Pompadour, in short, most of the women 
whom love has immortalized, were not without 
imperfections or infirmities, whilst the greater part 
of the women whose beauty is cited as perfect have 
ended their loves unhappily. This apparent con- 
tradiction must have a cause. Is it not, perhaps, 


46 


The Alchemist, or 


true, that man lives more by sentiment than by 
pleasure, and that the purely physical charm of a 
beautiful woman has limits, while the essentially 
moral charm of a moderately beautiful woman is 
infinite ? Is not this the moral of the fable which 
forms the basis of “ The Thousand and One Nights ?” 
An ugly wife might have defied the axe of Henry 
VIII, and subdued the inconstancy of her master. 

From a singularity easily explained in a girl of 
Spanish origin, Madame Claes was ignorant. She 
could read and write, but, up to the age of twenty, 
when her parents removed her from the convent, 
she had read none but ascetical works. On entering 
the world, she was, at first, naturally eager for its 
pleasures, and studied nothing but the futile science 
of dress ; but she was so profoundly humiliated by 
her ignorance that she did not dare to join in any 
conversation ; she was thus regarded as having little 
intelligence. The result of this mystic education, 
nevertheless, had been to leave her feelings in their 
full strength, and not to spoil her natural understand- 
ing. Stupid and plain as an heiress in the eyes of 
the world, she became intelligent and handsome to 
her husband. Balthazar had earnestly endeavored, 
during the early years of their union, to impart to 
his wife the knowledge she needed to be on a foot- 
ing with the society in which they moved ; but it 
was doubtless too late — she had no memory but that 
of the heart. Josephine forgot nothing that Claes 
said to her relating to themselves ; she remembered 


The House of Claes. 


47 


the least circumstances of their happy life, but she 
could not recollect in the morning the lesson of the 
night before. This ignorance would have led to 
discord between other married couples ; but Madame 
Claes had such an ingenuous skill in her passion, she 
loved her husband so piously and sacredly, and the 
desire of preserving her happiness made her so acute, 
that she always managed to seem to understand 
him, and rarely allowed evidence of her ignorance to 
escape her. Besides, when two people love each 
other so that every day is to them like the first of 
their passion, there arise, in this prolific happiness, 
certain phenomena which change all the conditions 
of life. Maturity is then like infancy, careless of 
everything that is not laughter, joy, and pleasure. 
And then, when life is very active, when its sources 
are very ardent, a man allows the combustion to go 
on without either thinking of it, or examining it, 
without calculating the means or the end. 

Never, moreover, did any daughter of Eve under- 
stand better than Madame Claes her duty as a wife. 
She had that Flemish submission which renders the 
domestic hearth so attractive, and to which her 
Spanish pride gave a higher savour. She was 
imposing, and knew how to command respect by a 
look which clearly exhibited an appreciation of her 
worth and her nobility : but before Claes she 
trembled, and, at length, she ended by placing him 
so high and so near to God, revealing to him every 
action of her life and every thought of her mind. 


48 


The Alchemisty or 


that her love was not without a tinge of respectful 
fear which sharpened it still more. She assumed 
with dignity all the habits of the Flemish housewife, 
and took pride in making domestic life sumptuously 
happy, in preserving all the details of her house 
in their classic cleanliness, in possessing nothing that 
was not absolutely good, in having the most delicate 
dishes on her table, and keeping everything around 
her in harmony with a life of the affections. They 
had two boys and two girls. The eldest, named 
Margaret, was born in 1796. The last child was a 
boy, three years old, named John Balthazar. The 
maternal feeling of Madame Claes was almost equal to 
her love for her husband. So there took place in her 
mind, particularly during the latter days of her life, a 
horrible combat between these two equally power- 
ful feelings, one of which had, in some sort, become 
the enemy of the other. The tears and terror 
imprinted on her face at the moment when the 
recital of the domestic drama which was brewing in 
that peaceful dwelling begins, were caused by the 
fear of having sacrificed her children to her hus- 
band. 

In 1805, the brother of Madame Claes died with- 
out children. The law of Spain does not allow 
the sister to succeed to the landed estate which 
form the apanage to the titles of a house ; but the 
duke left her by will about sixty thousand ducats, 
which the heirs of the collateral branch did not dis- 
pute. Although the sentiment which united her to 


The House of Claes. 


49 


Balthazar Claes was such that no consideration of 
moneyed interests ever tarnished it, Josephine 
experienced a sort of content in possessing- a fortune 
equal to that of her husband, and was happy to offer 
him something in her turn after having so nobly 
received everything from him. Chance ordered it 
so, then, that this marriage, which calculators pro- 
nounced an act of folly, proved, in a pecuniary point 
of view, an excellent one. The employment of this 
money was a matter not easily determined upon. 

The family mansion was so richly supplied with 
furniture, with pictures, with objects of art and 
value, that it seemed difficult to add anything 
worthy of what was already there. The taste of 
this family had tended towards the accumulation of 
vast treasures. One generation had devoted them- 
selves to hunting for fine pictures ; and the necessity 
of completing the collection had rendered the taste 
for paintings hereditary. The hundred pictures 
which ornamented the gallery by which the back 
quarter communicated with the reception-rooms in 
the first story of the front house, as well as about 
fifty others hung in the drawing-rooms, had required 
three centuries of patient search. These were cele- 
brated works by Rubens, Ruysdael, Vandyck, Ter- 
burg, Gerard Dow, Teniers, Mieris, Paul Potter, 
Wouvermans, Rembrandt, Hobbema, Cranach, and 
Holbein. The Italian and French pictures were in 
a minority, but all were originals and of great price. 
Another generation had had a fancy for Japan and 


50 


The Alchemist, or 


Chinese porcelain. One Claes was passionately fond 
of furniture, another of silver plate ; in short, every 
one of them had had his mania, his passion, one of 
the most striking features of the Flemish character. 
The father of Balthazar, the last member of the 
famous Dutch Association, had left one of the 
richest known collections of tulips. In addition to 
these hereditary riches, which represented an enor- 
mous capital, and magnificently furnished the old 
house — externally simple as a shell, but like a shell 
exhibiting, internally, mother-of-pearl and the richest 
colors — Balthazar Claes possessed a country-house 
in the plain of Orchies. 

Far from basing his expenditure upon his income, 
like the French, he had followed the old Dutch cus- 
tom of spending only a quarter of it, and twelve 
hundred ducats per annum placed his expenses on a 
level with those of the richest persons of the city. 
The publication of the Civil Code proved the wisdom 
of this. By ordering an equal division of his property, 
the article entitled “ Successions ” would have left 
all the children poor, and finally have dispersed the 
riches of the old Claes museum. Balthazar, with 
the consent of Madame Claes, placed out the fortune 
of his wife in such a manner as to assure each of 
their children a position similar to that of the father. 
The house of Claes then went on in its old modest 
way ; the family purchased some woods a little dam- 
aged by the wars that had taken place, but which, if 
well preserved, were destined within ten years, to 


T'he House of Claes » 


51 


increase enormously in value. The good society of 
Douay, which Claes frequented, had so appreciated 
the fine character and qualities of his wife, that, by 
a sort of tacit agreement, she was exempted from 
the duties to which provincials attach so much 
importance. During the winter season she seldom 
went into company; company came to her. She 
received every Wednesday, and gave three grand 
dinners a month. Every one felt that she was more 
at her ease in her own house, where, indeed, her love 
for her husband and the cares of the education of her 
children confined her. 

Such was, up to 1809, the management of this 
household, which offered little or nothing in con- 
formity with received ideas. The life of these two 
beings, full of love and joy, was outwardly like any 
other. The passion of Balthazar Claes for his wife, 
which his wife had the skill to perpetuate, appeared, 
as he himself observed, to employ its innate con- 
stancy in the culture of happiness, which was a good 
deal better than the culture of tulips, towards which 
he had been inclined from his childhood, and which 
prevented his having his mania, as each of his ances- 
tors had had. 

At the end of this year the mind and manners of 
Balthazar underwent a sad alteration, which began 
so naturally that at first Madame Claes did not 
think it necessary to ask him the cause. One night 
her husband went to bed in a state of preoccupation 
which she felt it a duty to respect. Her womanly 


52 


The Alchemisty or 


delicacy and her habits of submission had always led 
her to wait for Balthazar’s communications, her 
trust in him being guaranteed by an affection so true 
that it gave jealousy no foothold. Although certain 
of obtaining a reply whenever she should permit 
herself to ask an inquisitive question, she had always 
retained, from her first impressions in life, the fear 
of a refusal. Besides, the moral malady of her hus- 
band had phases, and only reached by gradually in- 
creasing shades that intolerable violence which 
destroyed the happiness of his household. However 
occupied, Balthazar remained, nevertheless, for sev- 
eral months, chatty and affectionate, and the change 
in his character then manifested itself only by fre- 
quent fits of absent-niindedness. Madame Claes 
hoped for a long time to learn from her husband 
himself the secret of his labors ; perhaps, she 
thought, he was not willing to confess it till the 
moment when they should appear in the shape of 
useful results, for many men have a pride which 
leada them to conceal their trials and only exhibit 
themselves victorious. At the hour of triumph, 
Balthazar’s domestic happiness would be more 
intense from his perceiving the gap in his life of love 
— a gap which his heart would, without doubt, dis- 
avow. Josephine knew her husband well enough to 
be sure that he would not forgive himself for having 
made his Pepita less happy for several long months. 
She remained silent therefore, experiencing a kind 
of joy in suffering by him, for him ; for her passion 


The House of Claes, 


S3 


had in it a tinge of that Spanish piety which never 
separates faith from love, and does not comprehend 
sentiment without suffering. She waited, therefore, 
for a return of affection, saying to herself every 
evening — “ It will be to-morrow !” and treating her 
happiness like an absent person. 

It was in the midst of these secret troubles that 
she conceived her last child. Horrible revelation of 
a future of sorrow ! On this occasion, love, among 
her husband’s distractions, was merely a distraction 
stronger than the rest. Her woman’s pride, wounded 
for the first time, led her to sound the depth of the 
unknown abyss which separated her forever from 
the Claes of early days. From this moment Bal- 
thazar grew worse. The man who had formerly 
been incessantly steeped in domestic enjoyments, 
who would play for whole hours with his children, 
rolling with them on the parlor carpet or upon the 
turf in the garden, who seemed unable to live except 
under the black eyes of his Pepita, did not even per- 
ceive the condition of his wife, forgot to live with 
her and his children, and forgot himself. 

The longer Madame Claes delayed asking him the 
object of his occupations, the less she dared. At the 
bare idea her blood boiled and her voice failed her. 
She at length believed she no longer pleased her 
husband, and was seriously alarmed. This fear 
occupied her mind, alternately depressing and excit- 
ing her, and became food for melancholy hours and 
bitter reveries. She justified Balthazar at her own 


54 


The Alchemisty or 


expense, fancying herself grown ugly and old ; then 
she caught a glimpse of a thought, generous in itself 
but humiliating for her, in the labors by which he 
preserved a negative fidelity. She was then anxious 
to restore him his independence by allowing the 
establishment of one of those secret divorces which 
seem to constitute the happiness of certain families. 
Before, however, bidding adieu to conjugal life, she 
made one endeavor to read the depths of his heart, 
but found it closed. She saw Balthazar becoming 
gradually indifferent to everything he had loved, 
neglecting his tulips in blossom, and thinking no 
longer of his children. No doubt he had given him- 
self up to some passion with which the affections of 
the heart had nothing to do, but which, according to 
woman’s creed, none the less dries up the heart. 
Love was sleeping, but had not fled. Although this 
was a consolation, the unhappiness remained all the 
same. The continuance of this crisis is explained 
by a single word, hope, the secret of all such conjugal 
anxieties. 

At the moment when the poor woman was driven 
to a degree of despair that gave her courage to 
question her husband, at that precise instant she 
would be blessed by an interval of happiness, during 
which Balthazar proved that if he was possessed by 
some diabolical thoughts, they permitted him at 
times to become himself again. During these 
moments in which her sky cleared up, she was too 
eager to enjoy her happiness to disturb it by impor- 


The House of Claes, 


55 


tunity ; and then, when she had mustered up all her 
courage to interrogate Balthazar, at the very moment 
she was about to open her lips, he would escape her 
by leaving her suddenly, or would sink into the gulf 
of his meditations from which nothing could draw 
him. 

The reaction of the moral upon the physical very 
soon commenced its ravages ; imperceptibly at first, 
but nevertheless, not likely to escape the eye of a 
loving woman who watched the secret pondering of 
her husband in its least manifestations. It was often 
difficult for her to restrain her tears, upon seeing 
him, after dinner, sink back into an arm-chair by the 
fire-side, gloomy and thoughtful, with his eyes fixed 
upon one of the black panels, unconscious of the 
silence that reigned around him. She observed, with 
terror, the gradual changes which lay waste the face 
love had made sublime for her. Every day the life 
of the soul departed from it more and more ; the 
physical framework remained without expression. 
At times his eyes assumed a glassy color ; it seemed 
as if the sight was reversed and exercised itself 
within. When the children were in bed, after hours 
of silence and solitude spent in frightful thoughts, if 
poor Pepita ventured to ask : “ My dear, are you 

suffering?" sometimes Balthazar would not reply at 
all ; or, if he did, he appeared to come to himself 
with a start, like a man suddenly roused from sleep, 
and pronounced a dry, cavernous no, which fell 
heavily upon the palpitating heart of his wife. How- 


The Alchemist, or 


56 

ever anxious to conceal from her friends the extra- 
ordinary position in which she was placed, she was 
forced to speak of it. According to the custom of 
small cities, Balthazar’s singular conduct had been 
the subject of conversation with a majority of the 
people, and certain circles were already acquainted 
with many details of which Madame Claes was ignor- 
ant. Thus, in spite of the silence commanded by 
courtesy, some of his friends evinced such lively 
anxiety on his account, that she was obliged to jus- 
tify the singularities of her husband. 

‘‘Balthazar had,” she said, “undertaken a great 
work, which certainly absorbed him, but his success 
would prove a source of glory for his family and his 
country.” 

This mysterious explanation was too flattering to 
the ambition of a city, in which, more than in any 
other, the love of country and the desire for its dis- 
tinction prevail d, not to produce a reaction in the 
public mind favorable to M. Claes. The supposi- 
tions of his wife were, up to a certain point, well 
founded. Several workmen of various professions 
had for a long time been employed in the garret of 
the front house, to which Balthazar repaired as soon 
as he was up in the morning. After having pro- 
longed his daily sojourn in this retreat more and 
more, so that his wife and children became accus- 
tomed to it, Balthazar, at length, remained there 
whole days together. But, grief most appalling! 
Madame Claes at length learned from the humiliat- 


The House of Claes. 


57 


ing confidences of her kind friends, who were aston- 
ished at her ignorance, that her husband was con- 
stantly procuring from Paris instruments used in 
physics, valuable materials, books and machines, and 
was, as they said, ruining himself seeking the philos- 
opher’s stone. She ought to think of her chil- 
dren, they added, of her own future life, and it 
would be criminal on her part not to exert all her 
influence over her husband to divert him from such 
fatal pursuits. 

Although Madame Claes had recourse to her 
dignity as a great lady to silence these absurd 
assertions, she was seized with terror, in spite of 
her apparent assurance, and resolved to abandon her 
course of abnegation. She brought about one of 
those situations in which a wife is on an equal foot- 
ing with her husband ; and thus she ventured with 
less fear to ask Balthazar the reason of the great 
change in him, and the motive for his constant 
retirement. The Fleming knitted his brows, and 
replied : — * 

“ My dear, you wouldn’t understand anything 
about it.” 

One day, Josephine insisted upon being made 
acquainted with his secret, complaining mildly of not 
being allowed to share the thoughts of him with 
whom she shared her life. 

“ If it interests you so much,” replied Balthazar, 
detaining his wife upon his knee, and stroking her 
black hair, “ I will tell you that I have resumed my 


58 


The Alchemist, or 


old study of chemistry, and that I am the happiest 
man alive.’' 

Two years after the winter in which M. Claes had 
become a chemist again, the aspect of the house was 
quite changed. Whether society was disgusted with 
the perpetual distraction of the savant, and feared 
to trouble him, or whether her secret anxieties 
made Madame Claes less amiable, she no longer 
received any but her most intimate friends. Baltha- 
zar went nowhere ; he shut himself up in his labora- 
tory during the day, remained there sometimes all 
night, joining his family only at dinner-time. He 
had ceased to spend the summer in the country, and 
his wife could not think of residing there alone. 
Sometimes Balthazar would leave his house, walk 
out of the city and not return till the next day, leav- 
ing Madame Claes in a state of mortal anxiety during 
the night ; after having fruitlessly sought for him in 
the city, the gates of which were closed at evening 
as in all fortified places, she was unable to send any 
one in pursuit of him into the country. The 
unhappy wife did not then have even that hope 
mingled with anguish which expectation affords, 
and she suffered on till the morrow. Balthazar, who 
had forgotten the hour for closing the gates, would 
arrive the next day very quietly, without appearing 
to suspect the tortures his absence had inflicted 
upon his family ; and then the happiness of seeing 
him again was, for his wife, as dangerous a crisis as 
her apprehensions could have been ; she was silent. 


The House of Claes, 


59 


durst not question him, for to her first inquiry, he 
would reply with an air of surprise : “ What ! 

Can’t 1 take a walk ?” 

The passions never deceive. The uneasiness of 
Madame Claes now justified the reports it had 
pleased her to contradict. Her youth had made 
her well acquainted with the polite pity of the world ; 
to avoid undergoing it a second time, she confined 
herself more closely than ever within the walls of 
her house, which all the world, even her most inti- 
mate friends, now deserted. The disorder of his 
dress, always so degrading in a man of the upper 
class, became so great with Balthazar, that, among 
her numerous causes of grief, this was not the least, 
to a woman accustomed to the exquisite cleanliness 
and neatness of the Flemings. In concert with 
Lemulquinier, her husband’s valet, Josephine for a 
time remedied the daily devastation of his garments, 
but was soon obliged to desist. The very day when, 
unknown to Balthazar, new clothes had been substi- 
tuted for those which were stained, torn or in holes, 
he made rags of them. 

This woman, who had been so happy during fifteen 
years, and whose jealousy had never been awakened, 
suddenly found herself no longer anything appar- 
ently in the heart where she had formerly reigned. 
Spanish by birth, the spirit of the Spanish woman 
revolted within her when she discovered a rival in 
the Science that deprived her of her husband ; the 
torments of jealousy devoured her heart, and revived 


6o 


The Alchemist, or 


her love. But what could she do against Science ? 
How was she to combat its incessant, tyrannical and 
increasing power? How could she destroy an 
invisible rival ? How could a woman, whose power 
is limited by nature, contend with an idea the enjoy- 
ments of which are infinite and the attractions ever 
new ? What had she to oppose to the coquetry of 
ideas that never lost their freshness, that sprang up 
again more beautiful in the midst of difficulties, that 
lured a man so far from the world as to make him 
forget even his most cherished affections ? 

At^ length, one day, in spite of the severe orders 
Balthazar had given, his wife was determined at 
least not to leave him, to shut herself up with him in 
the garret to which he retired, to fight, hand to 
hand, with her rival, and to assist her husband dur- 
ing the long hours he lavished upon this terrible 
mistress. She sought to glide secretly into his mys 
terious workshop of seduction, and acquire the right 
to remain there. She endeavored therefore to share 
with Lemulquinier the privilege of entering the 
laboratory ; but to prevent his being a witness of the 
quarrel which she dreaded, she waited for a day 
when her husband would not need his valet. For 
some time she had watched the comings and goings 
of this domestic with a kind of malignant impa- 
tience ; “ was he not acquainted with all she wished 
to learn, with what her husband concealed from her, 
and what she did not dare ask him about !” She 
fancied Lemulquinier more favored than she was 


The House of Claes. 


6i 


she, the wife ! She went, therefore, trembling and 
almost happy ; but for the first time in her life, she 
incurred the anger of Balthazar. Scarcely had she 
opened the door, when he sprang towards her, seized 
hold of her, and threw her roughly back towards 
the stairs, down which she came near rolling from 
top to bottom. 

“ God be praised, you are alive !” cried Balthazar, 
lifting her up. 

A glass mask was broken into fragments over 
Madame Claes, who beheld her husband pale, hag- 
gard, and terrified. 

“ My dear, I had forbidden you to come here,” 
said he, seating himself on one of the stairs like a 
man overcome. “ The saints have preserved you 
from death. By what happy chance was it my eyes 
happened to be directed towards the door? We 
might both have perished !” 

“ I should have been happy, then !” she said. 

“ My experiment has failed,” resumed Balthazar. 
“ I could forgive no one but you the grief your cruel 
interruption causes me. I was perhaps upon the 
very point of decomposing azote. Come, go back 
to your affairs.” Balthazar re-entered his labor- 
atory. 

“ I was perhaps upon the point of decomposing azote 
said the poor woman to herself as she regained her 
chamber, where she burst into tears. 

This sentence was unintelligible to her. Men, 
accustomed by their education to conceive every 


62 


The Alchemisty or 


thing, do not know how horrible it is for a woman 
not to be able to understand the thoughts of him she 
loves. More indulgent than we are, the divine crea- 
tures do not tell us when the language of their souls 
is misapprehended ; they fear to make us feel the 
superiority of their sentiments, and conceal their 
griefs with as much joy as they do their unappre- 
ciated pleasures : but more ambitious in love than 
we are, they would espouse more than the heart of 
man, they would also have all his thought. Madame 
Claes’ ignorance of the Science that occupied her 
husband engendered in her heart a greater vexation 
than that caused by the beauty of a rival. A con- 
test of woman with woman leaves to her who loves 
best the advantage of loving better ; but in this case, 
her vexation showed her powerlessness, and humbled 
all the feelings that help us to live. Josephine did not 
know ! She found herself in a situation in which her 
ignorance separated her from her husband. And, 
to crown all — the last torture and the most keen — 
he was often between life and death, he incurred 
dangers far from her though close to her, without 
her sharing them, without her knowing them. This 
was, like eternal punishment, a moral prison without 
issue, without hope. Madame Claes was deter- 
mined at least to be acquainted with the attractions 
of this science, and set secretly about studying 
chemistry in books. The family was now, as it were, 
shut up in a cloister. 

Such were the successive transitions through 


The House of Claes. • 63 

which misfortune goaded the house of Claes, before 
bringing it to that species of moral death with which 
it was stricken at the moment this history begins. 

This extraordinary situation became more com- 
plicated. Like all passionate women, Madame Claes 
was exceedingly disinterested. They who truly love 
know of how little value money is in comparison with 
the sentiments, and with what difficulty it becomes 
associated with them. Nevertheless, it was not with- 
out cruel emotion that Josephine learned that her 
husband owed a mortgage of three hundred thousand 
francs upon his property. The authenticity of the 
contracts justified the uneasiness, the .reports, and 
conjectures of the city. Madame Claes, justly 
alarmed, was forced, she who was so proud, to ques- 
tion her husband's notary, to acquaint him with the 
secret of her griefs, or to leave him to infer them, 
and to hear at last this humiliating inquiry : — 

What! has M. Claes told you nothing about it?" 

Fortunately, Balthazar’s notary was almost a rela- 
tion, and in this way : the grandfather of M. Claes 
had married a Pierquin, of Antwerp, who belonged 
to the same family as the Pierquins of Douay. After 
this marriage, the latter, though strangers to the 
Claeses, treated them as cousins. M. Pierquin, a 
young man of twenty-six, who had just succeeded to 
the notaryship of his father, was the only person who 
had access to the house. Madame Balthazar had, 
for several months, lived in such complete solitude, 
that the notary was obliged to assure her that the 


64 


The Alchemisty or 


news of the disaster, already known to the whole 
city, was true. He told her that her husband prob- 
ably owed considerable sums to the house which 
furnished him with chemical materials. This house, 
after having made inquiries as to the property and 
standing of M. Claes, honored all his orders, and sent 
the supplies without hesitation, notwithstanding the 
heavy credit thus given. Madame Claes charged 
Pierquin to demand an account of all that had been 
furnished her husband. Two months after, MM. 
Protez et Chiffreville, manufacturers of chemical 
instruments and materials, sent in a bill which 
amounted to a hundred thousand francs. 

Madame Claes and Pierquin examined this bill 
with increasing astonishment. Although many arti- 
cles, entered under their commercial or scientific 
names, were unintelligible to them, they were terri- 
fied at items of portions of metals and diamonds of 
all sorts, but in small quantities. The total of the 
debt was easily explained by the multiplicity of the 
articles, by the precaution necessary for the trans- 
portation of certain substances, or the carriage of 
valuable machines, by the exorbitant price of several 
materials which were either obtained with difficulty 
or were made dear by their scarcity, and, lastly, bv 
the value of the physical and chemical instruments 
manufactured according to the instructions of M. 
Claes. 

The notary, in the interest of his cousin, had made 
inquiries respecting Protez and Chiffreville, and 



SCARCELY HAD SHE OPENED THE DOOR WHEN HE SPRANG TOWARD HER.— 6'^e PUfjC 61 


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The House of Claes. 


65 


their acknowledged probity guaranteed the honesty 
of their transactions with M. Claes, to whom, 
indeed, they had often imparted results obtained by 
chemists at Paris, in order to save him expense. 
Madame Claes implored the notary to conceal the 
nature of these purchases from the Douaysians — 
purchases which would have been taxed as follies ; 
but Pierquin replied that, not to weaken the consid- 
eration Claes enjoyed, he had already .delayed till 
the last moment the notarial bonds which the extent 
of the sums lent in confidence by his clients had at 
last necessitated. He laid the extent of the danger 
open, by telling Madame Claes, as his cousin, that if 
she did not find a way to prevent her husband from 
spending his fortune so madly, in six months the 
patrimonial property would be encumbered with 
mortgages exceeding its value. As for himself, he 
added, the observations he had made to his cousin, 
with a consideration due to a man so justly 
respected, had not produced the least effect. Bal- 
thazar had replied, once for all, that he was working 
for the glory and fortune of his family. 

Thus, to all the tortures of the heart that Madame 
Claes had endured for two years, every one of which 
was added to the others, and increased the anxiety 
of the moment by all her past distress, was now 
joined a frightful incessant dread, which made the 
future terrible. Women have presentiments so true 
that they border on the marvellous. Why, as a 
general thing, do they tremble more than they hope, 


66 


The Alchemisty or 


when the interests of life are concerned ? Why have 
they no faith but in the grand ideas of a religious 
future? Why do they divine so skilfully the catas- 
trophes of fortune or the crises of our destinies? 
Perhaps the feeling that unites them to the man they 
love, makes them accurately weigh his strength, 
estimate his faculties, know his tastes, passions, vices, 
and virtues ; the perpetual study of these causes, in 
presence of ^which they incessantly find themselves, 
gives them, without doubt, the fatal power of fore- 
seeing their effects in all possible situations. What 
they see of the present enables them to jud^e of the 
future, with a skill naturally explained by the perfec- 
tion of their nervous system — one which permits 
them to seize the slightest diagnostics of thought 
or feeling. Everything in them vibrates in unison 
with great moral commotions. They either feel or 
they see. 

Now, although separated from her husband for 
two years, Madame Claes had had a presentiment of 
the loss of her fortune. She had properly estimated 
the deliberate passion, the unalterable firmness of 
Balthazar ; if it was true that he was trying to make 
gold, he would cast, with perfect recklessness, his 
last morsel of bread into the crucible. But what 
was he seeking? Hitherto, maternal love and 
conjugal affection had been so completely con- 
founded in the heart of this woman, that her children, 
equally beloved by herself and her husband, had 
never intervened between them. But now, suddenly, 


The House of Claes. 


6 ; 




she became rather a mother than a wife, although 
she was more frequently a wife than a mother. And 
yet, however disposed she might be to sacrifice her 
fortune, and even her children to the happiness of 
him who had chosen her, loved her, and adored her, 
and with whom she was still the only woman in the 
world, the remorse caused by her maternal love 
reduced her to terrible dilemmas. 

Thus, as a wife, she suffered in her heart ; as a 
mother, she suffered in her children ; and as a Chris- 
tian, she suffered for all. She was silent, and con- 
fined these devastating storms within her own soul. 
Her husband, the only arbiter of the fate of his 
family, was the master, and had the right to regulate 
its destiny at his will ; he owed an account to none 
but God. Besides, could she reproach him with the 
employment of his fortune after the disinterested- 
ness he had displayed during ten years of his 
married life? Was she a competent judge of his 
designs? But her conscience, in accordance with 
feeling and the laws, told her that parents were the 
depositaries of the family fortune, and had no right 
to alienate the material happiness of their children. 
In order to escape solving these momentous ques- 
tions, she preferred shutting her eyes, after the man- 
ner of people who refuse to look at the abyss to the 
bottom of which they know they must fall. 

For six months her husband had given her no 
money for household expenses. She secretly sent 
the rich diamond ornaments which her brother had 


68 


The Alchemisty or 


given her on the day of her marriage, to Paris, to 
be sold ; and introduced the most rigid economy 
into her family expenditure. She dismissed her 
children’s governess, and even little Jean’s nurse. 
The luxury of carriages had been, until lately, 
unknown to the bourgeoisie, at once so humble in 
their manners and so proud in their feelings ; noth- 
ing therefore, had been provided in the Claes man- 
sion for this modern invention. Balthazar had been 
compelled to have his stables and coach-house in a 
building opposite his own. His occupations not 
permitting him to superintend this part of the 
establishment, which belongs exclusively to the 
men, Madame Claes at once got rid of the onerous 
expense of equipages and servants, which her isola- 
tion rendered useless. Notwithstanding the validity 
of these reasons, she did not attempt to color her 
reforms by pretexts. Up to the present time, facts 
had falsified her assertions, and silence was thence- 
forward most suitable. This change in the Claeses’ 
mode of living was not justifiable in a country 
where, as in Holland, he who spends all his income 
passes for a madman. Only, as her eldest daughter 
Margaret was nearly sixteen, Josephine appeared 
desirous of procuring her a suitable alliance, and 
establishing her in the world as a girl allied to the 
Molinas, the Van-Ostrom Temnincks and the Casa- 
Reals, ought to be established. Some days before 
that on which this history begins, the money 
realized from the diamonds was exhausted. This 


The Ho2ise of Claes. 


6q 


same day, at three o’clock, whilst taking her 
children to vespers, Madame Claes had met Pier- 
quin, on his way to see her ; he accompanied her to 
St. Peter’s, conversing with her, in a low voice, 
upon her situation. 

“ My dear cousin,” said he, I cannot, without 
being wanting in the friendship which attaches me 
to your family, conceal from you the peril in which 
you stand ; I implore you to confer with your hus- 
band upon it. Who but you can stop him on the 
brink of the abyss at which you have arrived ? The 
revenues from the property mortgaged are not suffi- 
cient to pay the interest on the sums borrowed ; so 
you are at this moment without income. If you cut 
the woods you possess, it would be depriving your- 
self of the only chance of safety left for the future. 
My cousin Balthazar is at this moment indebted to 
the house of Protez and Chiffreville to the amount 
of thirty thousand francs. With what will you pay 
this sum ? What will you live on ? And what will 
become of you if Claes continues to send for chemi- 
cals, retorts, voltaic batteries, and other trumpery ? 
The whole of your fortune, except the house and 
furniture, has been dissipated into gas and carbon. 
When it was proposed to him to mortgage his house 
day before yesterday, what do you think was Claes’ 
reply ? ‘ The devil !’ And that is the only symptom 

of reason he has shown for three years !” 

Madame Claes pressed the arm of Pierquin sorrow- 




70 


The Alchemist, or 


fully, raised her eyes towards heaven, and said 
“ Pray keep this a secret.” 

In spite of her piety, the poor woman, crushed by 
these words that fell upon her like a thunderbolt, 
could not pray ; she sat upon her chair among her 
children, opened her missal without turning a leaf ; 
she had sunk into a contemplation as absorbing as 
were the meditations of her husband. Spanish 
honor, Flemish honesty, resounded in her soul with 
a voice as powerful as that of the organ. The ruin 
of her children was consummated ! Between them 
and the honor of their father she could no longer 
hesitate. The necessity of a speedy contest between 
her and her husband terrified her ; he was, in her 
eyes, so great, so imposing, that the mere prospect 
of his anger agitated her as much as the idea of the 
Divine majesty. She was about, then, to depart 
from that constant submission in Avhich she had so 
sacredly abided as a wife. The interests of her 
children would oblige her to thwart a man she idol- 
ized in his tastes. Would it not be often necessary 
to bring him rudely back to positive questions when 
he was hovering about in the lofty regions of Science, 
to drag him violently from a smiling future to plunge 
him into the most hideous state that material life 
can present to artists and great men ? For her, Bal- 
thazar Claes was a giant of science, a man big with 
glory ; he could not have forgotten her but for the 
most seductive hopes. And then he was so sensible ; 
she had heard him speak with-so much ability upon 


The House of Claes - 


21 

questions of all sorts, that he must be sincere when 
he sa id he was laboring for the glory and fortune of 
his family. The love of this man for his wife and 
children was not only immense, it was infinite. 
These feelings could not be dead, they were no 
doubt ennobled while reproducing themselves in 
another form. She, so noble so generous, and so 
timid, was about to ring constantly in the ears of 
this great man the word money and the sound of 
money, to lay bare before him the necessities of 
want, to ask him to listen to cries of distress, while 
he might be listening to the melodious tongue of 
Fame. Might she not thus diminish Balthazar’s 
affection for her ? If she had had no children, she 
would have embraced courageously and with pleas-^ 
ure the new destiny her husband was laying out for 
her. Women brought up in opulence are prompt 
to recognize the emptiness of material enjoyments ; 
and when their hearts, more fatigued than withered, 
have shown them the happiness that springs from 
a constant exchange of true feelings, they do not 
shrink from an humble existence, if it suit the being 
by whom they feel themselves beloved. Their 
ideas, their pleasures, are dependent upon the 
caprices of a life altogether outside of their own ; 
for them the only future to be dreaded is the loss 
of it. 

At this moment, then, her children separated Pepita 
from her true life, as much as Balthazar Claes had 
been separated from her by Science ; so, when she 


72 


The Alchemist, or 


returned from vespers, and had thrown herself into 
her easy-chair, she sent her children away, command- 
ing them to preserve the most profound silence, and 
then sent word to her husband that she Avished to 
see him ; but, although Lemulquinier, his old valet, 
had endeavored to drag him from his laboratory, he 
persisted in remaining there. Madame Claes had, 
therefore, time to reflect ; and she remained thought- 
ful, heedless of the hour, the time, or the day. The 
thought of owing thirty thousand francs, and being 
unable to pay them, revived her past sorrows, and 
mingled them Avith those of the present and the 
future. She was too Aveak to bear this Aveight of 
interests, ideas, and sensations, and she Avept. When 
she saAv Balthazar enter, Avith a countenance appar- 
ently more terrible, more absorbed, more Avandering 
than it had ever been ; and Avhen he did not answer 
her, she felt at first fascinated by the immobility of 
that blank, A^ague look, by all the devouring ideas 
distilled from that bald broAv. She desired to die 
under the stroke of this first impression. When she 
heard that careless voice uttering a scientific aspira- 
tion at the moment Avhen her heart Avas breaking, 
her courage returned ; she resolved to enter the lists 
against the terrible poAver Avhich had raAushed a 
lover from her, a father from her children, a fortune 
from her house, and happiness from them all. Never- 
theless, she could not repress the trepidation by 
which she Avas agitated, for, during her Avhole life, 
she had not passed through a scene so solemn. Was 


The House of Claes. 73 

not this terrible moment big with fate, and was not 
her whole past summed up in it? 

Now, weak people, timid persons, or those to 
whom the vivacity of their sensations magnifies even 
the least difficulties of life, men who are seized with 
an involuntary trembling when confronted with the 
arbiters of their destiny, can all conceive the thou- 
sand thoughts that were whirling in the brain of this 
woman, and the feelings under the weight of which 
her heart sank within her, when her husband slowly 
directed his steps towards the garden door. Most 
women understand the anguish of the secret deliber- 
ation with which Madame Claes contended. Even 
those whose hearts have not been more violently 
moved than by the revelation of some excess in their 
expenditure, or of debts incurred at the dress- 
maker’s, will easily comprehend how much the 
throbbings of the heart must augment when life 
itself is involved. A beautiful woman is still more 
beautiful when throwing herself at the feet of her 
husband, and finds resources in the very attitudes of 
her grief ; whereas the consciousness of her physical 
defects still further increased the fears of Madame 
Claes. So, when she saw Balthazar about to leave 
the room, her first impulse was to spring towards 
him ; but a bitter thought restrained her, — she was 
about to stand up before him! Would she not 
appear ridiculous to a man who, being no longer 
under the fascinations of love, might see correctly ? 
Josephine would willingly have lost all, fortune and 


74 


The Alchemist^ or 


children, rather than diminish her woman’s power. 
She wished to avoid every ill chance in an hour so 
solemn, and called loudly : — ‘‘ Balthazar ! ” He 
turned round mechanically and coughed ; but, with- 
out paying attention to his wife, he went and spit 
into one of those little square boxes placed at inter- 
vals along the wainscot, as in all the apartments of 
Holland and Belgium. This man, who thought of 
^ nobody, never forgot the spittoons, so inveterate was 
the habit. As to poor Josephine, incapable of 
accounting for this peculiarity, her husband’s con- 
stant solicitude for the furniture always gave her 
great pain ; but, on this occasion, it was so violent as 
to carry her beyond all bounds, and made her 
exclaim in a tone of impatience, expressive of her 
wounded sensibilities : 

“Sir, I am speaking to you!” 

“ What does that mean?” said“ Balthazar, turning 
sharply round, and darting at his wife a look instinct, 
now, with life, and which was a thunder-clap to her. 

“ Pardon me, my dear,” she said, turning pale. 
She endeavored to rise, and hold out her hand 
towards him, but she sank back helpless. “ I am 
dying !” she said, in a voice broken by sobs. 

At this sight, Balthazar underwent, like all absent- 
minded men, a lively reaction, and divined, thus to 
speak, the secret of this crisis. He immediately took 
Madame Claes in his arms, opened the door of the 
little ante-chamber, and passed so rapidly up the old 
wooden stairs, that his wife’s dress having caught in 


The House of Claes, 


75 


the open maw of one of the fabulous animals which 
formed the balustrade, he left behind a whole 
breadth, torn out with a loud noise. He burst open 
the door of the common vestibule of their apart- 
ments ; but he found his wife’s chamber closed. 

He placed his wife gently in an arm-chair, say- 
ing : — “ Good heavens, where is the key ?” 

“ Thank you, my dear,” responded Madame Claes, 
opening her eyes ; this is the first time, for many a 
day, that I have felt myself so near your heart.” 

“ Good gracious,” repeated Claes, “ the key ; here 
are the servants.” 

Josephine motioned to him to take the key, 
which was fastened to a string hanging down by her 
pocket. After having opened the door, Balthazar 
laid his wife upon a couch, went out to prevent the 
terrified servants from coming up, by ordering them 
to serve the dinner immediately, and then returned 
eagerly to his wife. 

“ What is the matter, my darling?” said he, sitting 
down by her, and taking her hand, which he kissed. 

“ Nothing now,” she replied; “ I no longer suffer. 
I only wish 1 had the power of God to lay all the 
gold in the world at your feet.” 

“ Why gold ?” he asked, drawing her closer to 
him, and kissing her brow again. “ Do you not give 
me greater riches in loving me as you do, dear and 
precious creature?” he continued. 

“ Oh, Balthazar ! why will you not dispel the 
anguish of all our lives, as with your voice you ban- 


76 


The Alchemist, or 


ish grief from my heart. I see you are still the 
same.” ^ 

Of what anguish are you speaking, my love ?” 

“ Why, we are ruined, my dear !” 

Ruined !” he repeated. He began to smile, 
caressed his wife’s hand, which he held in his own, 
and said, in that soft voice so long silent : — “ Why 
to-morrow, my angel, our fortune will, perhaps, be 
boundless. Yesterday, while searching for secrets 
much more important, I think I found the means of 
crystallizing carbon, the basis of diamonds. Oh ! 
my dear wife, in a few days you will forgive me all 
my distractions. It appears I am absent-minded 
sometimes. Was I not very abrupt with you just 
now ? Be indulgent with a man who has never 
ceased to think of you, whose labors are all full of 
you, of us.” 

“ Enough ! enough ! ” she said ; ‘‘ we will talk this 
all over my dear, this evening. I have suffered 
from too much trouble, now I suffer from too much 
pleasure.” 

She had not expected to see that face again 
animated by a sentiment as tender as of yore, to hear 
that voice still as sweet as it had ever been, to 
recover what she imagined she had forever lost. 

‘‘ This evening,” he replied, “we will talk the mat- 
ter over. If I am absorbed in revery, remind me of 
this promise. I mean to give up my calculations 
and my labors to-night, and plunge deep into the 
joys and pleasures of the fireside and the hearth ; for 


The House of Claes. 


77 


I am actually in need of them. Pepita, I thirst for 
them ! 

“ You’ll tell me what you are searching for, won’t 
you, Balthazar?” 

“Why, my poor child, you would not understand 
it.” 

“You think so! For four months, love, I have 
been studying chemistry, so as to be able to talk 
with you about it. I have read Fourcroy, Lavoisier, 
Chaptal, Nollet, Rouelle, Berthollet, Gay-Lussac, 
Spalanzani, Leuwenhoek, Galvani, Volta, in short, 
all sorts of books relative to the science you wor- 
ship. Oh, you can tell me your secrets.” 

“ You are an angel,” cried Balthazar, falling at the 
knees of his wife, and shedding tears of tenderness 
that almost made her tremble, “ we shall understand 
each other in everything.” 

“Ah ! ” said she, “ I would throw myself into the 
fire from hell that rages in your furnaces, to hear 
those words from your mouth, and to see you as I 
see you now.” Hearing her daughter’s step in the 
ante-chamber, she sprang forward to meet her. 
“What do you wish, Margaret?” she said to her 
eldest daughter. 

“ My dear mother. Monsieur Pierquin has just 
come. If he stays to dinner, I shall need a clean 
cloth, and you forgot to give me one this morning.” 

Madame Claes drew a bunch of keys from her 
pocket and gave them to her daughter, pointing out 
to her the mahogany chests which stood against the 


78 


The Alchemist, or 


walls ; choose from among the damask sets on the 
right.” 

As my dear Balthazar returns to me to-day, give 
him wholly back to me,” she said, returning and 
putting on a charming expression ©f playfulness. 
“ Go to your own room, my dear, and do me the 
favor to dress yourself. Pierquin dines with us. 
Take off these ragged clothes. Just look at these 
stains. I suppose it’s muriatic or sulphuric acid that 
has edged all these holes with yellow. Come, make 
yourself young again. I will send Mulquinier to 
you, when I have changed my gown.” 

Balthazar tried to go into his room through the 
door communicating with it, but he had forgotten 
that it was locked on his side. He went out by the 
ante-chamber. 

“ Margaret, put the cloth upon a chair, and come 
and dress me, I don’t want Martha,” said Madame 
Claes to her daughter. 

Balthazar, on passing out, had seized Margaret, 
pulled her playfully towards him, and said, “ Good 
morning, my child ! How pretty you look to-day 
with yoqr muslin gown and your pink sash.” Then 
he kissed her on the forehead, and pressed her 
hand. 

“ Mamma, papa has just kissed me,” cried Mar- 
garet, on entering her mother’s room, “ he seems 
quite gay and happy.” 

“My child, your father is a very great man, he 
has been toiling for three years for the glory and 


The House of Claes, 


79 


wealth of his family, and he thinks he has attained 
the object of his investigations. To-day is to be a 
season of joy for us.” 

“ My dear mother,” replied Margaret, “ the ser- 
vants were so sorry to see him chagrined, that we 
shall not be the only ones to rejoice. Oh, put on 
another sash, this one is so much faded.’’ 

“Very well, but let us be quick, for I want to 
speak with Pierquin. Where is he ?” 

“ He’s playing with Jean in the parlor.” 

“ Where are Gabriel and Felicie ?” 

“ I hear them in the garden.” 

“ Well, go down quick and take care that they do 
not pick any tulips ! Your father has not seen them 
yet this year, and he might be glad to look at them 
to-day, bn rising from table. Tell Mulquinier to 
take your father whatever he needs for his toilet.” 

When Margaret had gone, Madame Claes cast a 
glance at her children through the chamber win- 
dows which looked upon the garden, and saw them 
busy gazing at one of those insects with shining, 
green, gold-spotted wings, called Devil’s-darning- 
needles. 

“ Be good children, my darlings,” she said, raising 
the sash and leaving it up to air the room. Then 
she knocked gently at the door leading to her hus- 
band’s apartment to make sure that he had not fallen 
into another fit of abstraction. He opened the 
door, and she, delighted to find him dressing, said 


8o 


The Alchemist^ or 


joyously : “You will not leave me long with Pier- 
quin, will you ? Please join me soon.” 

She ran down stairs so nimbly, that no stranger, 
on hearing her, would have pronounced her step 
that of a lame person. 

“ As master was carrying you just now, madame,” 
said the valet whom she met on the stairs, “ he tore 
your dress ; that’s no matter, it’s only a bit of silk, 
but he broke the jaw of this figure, and I don’t know 
any one that can mend it. So the staircase is dis- 
honored ! It was a very fine flight.” 

“ Nonsense, my poor Mulquinier, don’t have it 
mended, there’s no harm done.” 

“ What can have happened,” said Lemulquinier to 
himself, “ to prevent there being any harm ? Can 
master have discovered the Absolute ?” 

“ Good day to you. Monsieur Pierquin,” said 
Madame Claes, opening the parlor door. 

The notary hastened to offer his arm to his cousin, 
but she never took that of any one but her husband. 
She thanked Pierquin by a smile, and said : “ Have 
you come for the thirty thousand francs ?” 

“Yes, madame. On returning home I found a 
notice from the firm of Protez and Chiffreville, that 
they have drawn six bills of exchange on Monsieur 
Claes for five thousand francs each.” 

“Very well. Do not speak of -it to Balthazar 
to-day,” she replied. “ Dine with us. If he happens 
to ask you what brought you here, invent some 
plausible excuse. Give me the notice, I will speak 


The House of Claes, 


8i 


to him myself about it. Everything is going on 
well,” she added, observing the notary’s astonish 
ment. “ My husband will probably repay the 
amounts borrowed in a few months’ time.” 

While listening to this whispered sentence, the 
notary looked at Margaret coming in from the 
garden, followed by Gabriel and Felicie, and said, 
“ I have never seen Mademoiselle Claes looking so' 
pretty as she does at this moment.” 

Madame Claes, who had seated herself in her arm- 
chair, and had taken little Jean in her lap, raised her 
head and looked with an air affectedly indifferent at 
her daughter and the notary. 

Pierquin was of medium height, neither fat nor 
thin ; his face was, in an ordinary way, handsome 
enough, and expressed a sadness rather peevish than 
melancholy, a tendency to revery rather undecided 
than pensive. He passed for a misanthrope, but he 
was too selfish and too great an eater for his divorce 
from the world to be real. His gaze, which was 
habitually bent on vacancy, his indifferent attitude, 
his affected silence, appeared to denote depth, whilst 
in reality they covered the emptiness and nullity of 
a notary exclusively occupied with worldly interests, 
and who still found himself young enough to be 
envious. An alliance with the house of Claes would 
have been with him the cause of the most boundless 
devotion, if he had not had an underlying feeling of 
avarice. He affected the generous, but he knew 
what he was about. So, without accounting to him- 


82 


The Alchemist, or 


self for the changes in his manners, his attentions 
were curt, hard, and rough, like those of most men 
of business, when he thought Claes was ruined ; and 
they became kind, bland, and almost servile, when 
he suspected that the labors of his cousin had come 
to a fortunate issue. Sometimes he viewed Margaret 
Claes as a young lady whom it would be impossible 
for a simple provincial notary to aspire to ; some- 
times he considered her as a poor girl who would 
think herself fortunate if he condescended to make 
her his wife. He was a provincial and a Fleming, 
without pretension ; he was not destitute of devoted- 
ness or goodness ; but he had an ingenuous kind of 
egotism which rendered his qualities incomplete, 
and foibles which injured his person. 

At this moment Madame Claes remembered the 
adrupt manner in which the notary had spoken to 
her under the porch of St. Peter’s, and remarked the 
change which her reply had wrought in his manner. 
She divined his thoughts, and cast a searching glance 
at her daughter, to try to read in her countenance 
her feelings towards her cousin ; but she saw 
nothing but the most perfect indifference. After a 
few minutes, during which the conversation turned 
upon the common topics of the city, the master of 
the house came down from his chamber, where, for 
some minutes past, his wife had heard with inex- 
pressible pleasure the creaking of boots upon the 
floor. His step, like that of a young, active man, 
announced a complete metamorphosis ; and the 


The House of Claes, 


83 


expectation which his appearance excited in MadUme 
Claes was so great that she could scarcely conceal 
her tremor as he came down-stairs. Balthazar was 
dressed in the costume then in fashion. He wore 
well-polished top-boots, which showed a portion of 
his white silk stockings, blue cassimere small-clothes 
with gold buttons, a white flowered waistcoat, and 
a blue frock. He had shaved, combed his hair, per- 
fumed his head, cut his nails, and washed his hands 
with such care that he no longer seemed the same 
man to those who had seen him a few moments 
before. Instead of an old man well-nigh crazy, his 
wife, his children, and the notary beheld a man of 
forty, whose affable, good-humored countenance was 
winning in the extreme. Even the fatigue and suffer- 
ings betrayed by his thinness and the adhesion of the 
skin to the bones, had a sort of grace. 

“ How do you do, Pierquin?” said Balthazar Claes. 

Having become a father and husband again, the 
chemist took his youngest child from his wife’s lap, 
and tossed him up and down with the greatest glee. 

“ Look at the little fellow !” said he to the notary. 
“ Does not such a pretty creature give you an incli- 
nation to get married? Take my word for it, my 
dear sir, family joys are a consolation for everything. 
Up! up! up!” said he, tossing Jean as high as he 
could reach. “Down! down! down!” he cried, as 
he brought him to the ground again. 

The child screamed with laughter at finding itself 
alternately touching the ceiling and the floor. The 


84 


The Alchemist, or 


poor mother turned away her eyes to conceal the 
emotion caused by a game so simple in appearance, 
but which was an entire domestic revolution to her. 

“ Now let us see how you can run,” said Baltha- 
zar, placing the child upon the floor, and throwing 
himself into an arm-chair. The child ran to his 
father, attracted by the glitter of the gold buttons 
which fastened the knees of his small clothes above 
his boots. “You are a darling!” said Balthazar, 
kissing him, “ you are a true Claes, you stand straight 
when you walk. Well, Master Gabriel, how is 
Father Morillon?” said he, to his eldest son, taking 
him by the ear and shaking it. “Do you wage a 
fierce war against your themes and translations? 
Do you peg away hard at your mathematics ?” 

Balthazar rose, went towards Pierquin, and said to 
him with that bland courtesy which characterized 
him, “ Have you anything to say to me, my dear 
sir?” He offered him his arm, drawing him towards 
the garden, adding, “ Come and look at my tulips.” 

Madame Claes watched her husband as he went 
out, and could not contain her joy at seeing him so 
young, so affable, so like himself once more ; she 
rose, put her arms around her daughter’s waist, and 
embraced her, saying: 

“ My dear Margaret, my beloved child, I love you 
better to-day than ever.” 

“ It is a long time since we have seen papa so 
cheerful,” she replied.. 

Lemulquinier came to announce that dinner was 


The House of Claes » 


85 


ready. To prevent Pierquin’s offering her his arm, 
Madame Claes took Balthazar’s, and the family 
entered the dining-room. 

This apartment, the ceiling of which was com- 
posed of visible beams, washed and varnished every 
year, was furnished with high oaken side-boards, upon 
the shelves of which stood the most curious pieces 
of patrimonial plate. The walls were tapestried 
with violet-colored leather, upon which hunting sub- 
jects were stamped in gold. Over the side-boards, 
here and there carefully disposed, shone the feathers 
of curious birds and rare shells. The chairs had not 
been changed since the beginning of the sixteenth 
century, and presented that square form, those 
twisted columns, and that little back covered with 
fringed stuff, which constituted a fashion so universal 
that Raphael illustrated it in his Madonna della Seg, 
giola. The wood had become black ; but the gilded 
nails shone as if they were new, and the cloths, care- 
fully renewed, were of a bright red color. 

Flanders was entirely revived with its Spanish 
innovations. The flagons and decanters upon the 
tables had that respectable air which is communi- 
cated by the rounded bellies of the antique style. 
The glasses were those high-stemmed affairs that 
are seen in all Flemish and Dutch pictures. The 
service of stone ware, ornamented with figures and 
colored after the manner of Bernard de Palissy, was 
of the English manufacture of Wedgewood. The 
plate was massive, square-faced, with prominent 


86 


The Alchemist^ or 


relievos — family plate, all the pieces of which were of 
different patterns, both in fashion and form, attesting 
the commencement and progress of the fortunes of 
the Claeses. The napkins had fringes, a style quite 
Spanish. As to the table-linen, every one will sup- 
pose that with the Claeses the point of honor con- 
sisted in possessing the most superb. This service 
and this plate were intended for the daily use of the 
family. The front house, in which banquets were 
given, had its own peculiar splendor, the wonders 
of which, reserved for gala days, stamped them with 
that solemnity which invariably disappears when 
things become common from habitual use. In the 
back-quarter, everything bore the stamp of patri- 
archal simplicity. Lastly — charming feature of the 
room — a magnificent vine ran along the whole out- 
side, and with its leaves and branches encircled 
ever}^ window. 

You remain faithful to our traditions, madame,” 
said Pierqum, on receiving a plate of thyme soup — a 
dish in which Flemish and Dutch cooks put little 
balls of force-meat with slices of toast — “ for this was 
the Sunday soup of our forefathers. Your house 
and that of my uncle Des Raquets are now the only 
ones where you can get this historical dish in all the 
Netherlands. Ah, I forget ; old Monsieur Savaron 
de Savarus still takes pride in having it served at 
his house in Tournay, but everywhere else the cus- 
toms of old Flanders are disappearing. Furniture 
nowadays must be in the Greek style ; you see 


The House of Claes, 


87 


nothing but helmets, bucklers, lances and fasces. 
Everybody is rebuilding his house, selling his old 
furniture, recasting his plate, or bartering it off for 
Sevres porcelain, which is not as good as old Saxon 
or as Chinese. As for me, I am a Fleming to the 
soul. My heart bleeds to see the hard- ware men 
buying up our old brass or tin-incrusted furniture, 
for the mere price of the wood. Society wants to 
change its skin, it seems to me. Even the artistic 
processes of our mechanics are disappearing. 
Where speed is the first condition of everything, of 
course nothing can be conscientiously done. At my 
last trip to Paris, I was taken to see the exhibition of 
paintings at the Louvre. I affirm, on my word of 
honor, that they looked like screens — pictures with- 
out atmosphere, without depth, and the painters 
seemed to have been afraid to put on any color. 
And they are tr3dng, they say, to overturn our old 
school ! Very probably !” 

“ Our old painters,” returned Balthazar, “ studied 
the various combinations and the power of resis- 
tance of colors, by subjecting them to the influence 
of the sun and the rain. But you are right ; the 
material resources of the art are less cultivated 
nowadays than ever.” 

Madame Claes did not listen to the conversation. 
When she heard the notary say that porcelain had 
become fashionable, she conceived the brilliant idea 
of selling the heavy plate left her by her brother, 


88 


The Alchemist, or 


hoping to be thus able to pay her husband’s debt of 
thirty thousand francs. 

“ Ah ha !” Balthazar was saying to the notary 
when Madame Claes again listened to the conversa- 
tion, “ so the people at Douay interest themselves in 
me and my labors, do they ?” 

“Yes,” replied Pierquin, “everybody wonders 
what you are spending so much money about. Yes- 
terday, I heard the chief justice regretting that a 
man like you should be hunting for the philosopher’s 
stone. I took it upon myself to reply that you were 
too well-informed not to know that that would be 
undertaking the impossible, too good a Christian to 
hope to prevail over God, and, like all the Claeses, 
too shrewd a manager to exchange your hard 
money for sawdust. I must nevertheless confess 
that I shared the regrets expressed at your with- 
drawal from society. You really no longer belong to 
the town. You would assuredly have been delighted, 
madame, had you heard the praise that every one 
seemed eager to bestow upon you and Monsieur 
Claes.” 

“ You have acted as a relative should, in repelling 
an imputation the very least evil of which would be 
to make me ridiculous,” replied Balthazar. “ So the 
Douay sians think me ruined ! V ery well, my dear 
Pierquin, two months hence, I will give a ball, in 
celebration of the anniversary of my marriage, the 
magnificence of which will restore me that regard 
which our dear countrymen always pay to wealth.” 


The House of Claes, 


Madame Claes blushed deeply. This anniversary 
had been forgotten for two years. Like the madmen 
whose faculties glow with unusual lustre during 
their lucid intervals, Balthazar had never been so 
intellectual in his affection. He was assiduously 
attentive to his children, and his conversation 
sparkled with grace, wit, and readiness. This return 
of a father’s tenderness, after so long an absence, 
was certainly the most delightful fete he could 
give his wife, for whom his words and his manner 
had recovered that constant sympathy of expression, 
which flows harmoniously from heart to heart, and 
proves a delicious reciprocity of sentiment. 

Old Lemulquinier appeared to have grown young 
again ; he came and went with unusual alacrity, for he ^ 
believed in the accomplishment of his secret hopes. 

The change, so suddenly brought about in the man- 
ners of his master, was more significant to him than 
to Madame Claes. Where the family beheld happi- 
ness, the valet beheld fortune. By assisting Baltha- 
zar in his manipulations he had espoused his folly. 
Whether he had gathered the extent of his researches 
from the explanations which escaped the chemist 
when an experiment failed in his hands, or whether 
man’s innate disposition for imitation had caused 
him to adopt the ideas of him in whose atmosphere 
he lived, Lemulquinier had conceived for his master 
a superstitious feeling, mingled with terror, admira- 
tion, and selfishness. The laboratory was to him 
what a lottery office is to the people — hope in an 


90 


The Alchemist^ or 


organized form. Every night he went to bed, say- 
ing to himself : “ To-morrow, perhaps, we shall 

swim in gold.’' And on the morrow, he awoke with 
a faith as lively as that of the day before. 

His name indicated his purely Flemish origin. 
Formerly men of the people were only known by a 
designation derived from their trade, their country, 
their physical conformation or moral qualities. This 
designation became the name of the family founded 
by them on their attaining the condition of freemen. 
Dealers in linen thread were called mulqumiers in 
Flanders, and this had doubtless been the employ- 
ment of the man who, among the old valet’s ances- 
tors, emerged from the condition of a serf to attain 
and hold that of a citizen, until their obscure misfor- 
tunes reduced the mulquinier’s descendant to the 
state of a serf again, with the addition of wages, 
however. The history of Flanders, of its thread and 
its trade, was therefore summed up in this old ser- 
vant, who, for the sake of euphony, was often called 
Mulquinier. His character and his physiognomy 
were not wanting in originality. His face, triangu- 
lar in form, was broad, long, and scarred by the 
small-pox, which had given it a singular appearance, 
by leaving upon it a multitude of shiny white 
places. He was thin and tall, and had a grave, mys- 
terious walk. His little eyes, orange-colored like 
the smooth yellow wig upon his head, never looked 
any one in the face. His external appearance was 
thus in harmony with the sentiment of curiosity he 


The House of Claes. 


91 

excited. His employment as a chemical assistant — 
a man therefore initiated into his master’s secrets — 
and his silence in regard to them, invested him with 
a charm. The inhabitants of the rue de Paris beheld 
him pass along with mingled interest and fear, for, 
when questioned, his answers were always sybilline 
and big with treasures. Proud of being necessary 
to his master, he exercised a sort of vexatious 
authority over his fellow-servants, and profited by 
it, too, for his own advantage, by obtaining privi- 
leges which made him almost master of the house. 
Unlike Flemish domestics, who are usually very 
much attached to the family, he cared for no one but 
Balthazar. Did any affliction overtake Madame 
Claes, did any fortunate circumstance happen to the 
family, he eat his bread and butter and drank his 
beer with his ordinary indifference. 

The dinner over, Madame Claes proposed that 
they should take their coffee in the garden, by the 
central group of tulips. The earthen pots in which 
they grew, with pieces of slate engraved with their 
names attached to them, had been buried and 
arranged in such a manner as to form a pyramid, at 
the top of which was a dragon’s mouth tulip, the 
only one in Flanders. This flower, called Tulipa 
Claesiana, contained the seven colors, and its long 
indented leaves seemed gilded upon the edge. Bal- 
thazar’s father, who had several times refused ten 
thousand florins for it, was so anxious that a single 
seed of it should not be stolen, that he kept it in 


92 


The Alchemist, or 


the parlor, and often passed whole days in gazing at 
it. The stalk was enormous, very straight, firm, and 
of a splendid green; the proportions of the plant 
were in harmony with the calix, the colors of which 
were distinguished by that brilliant, sharp clearness, 
which formerly gave such a value to these aristo- 
cratic flowers. 

“ Why, here are tulips to the value of thirty or 
forty thousand francs said the notary, looking 
alternately at Madame Claes and the many-colored 
pyramid. Madame Claes was too much fascinated 
by the sight of the flowers, which in the rays of the 
setting sun resembled glittering gems, to catch the 
bearing of the notary’s observation. 

“ What is the use of all this ?” continued Pierqmn, 
now addressing Balthazar, “you ought to sell 
them.” 

“ Bless me, Tm not in want of money !” replied 
Claes, with the gesture of a man to whom forty 
thousand francs were a mere trifle. 

A few moments of silence followed, only broken 
by the exclamations of the children. 

“ Look, mamma ! look at this.” 

“ Oh, what a beautiful one this is !’* 

“ What is the name of this one ?” 

“What an abyss for human reason!” cried Bal- 
thazar, raising his hands, and clasping them as if in 
despair. “ A mere combination of hydrogen and 
oxygen, by means of a simple difference in the pro- 
portions, produces, in the same medium and by one 


The House of Claes, 


93 


common principle, these various colors, each of 
which, of course, constitutes a different result.” 

His wife heard plainly enough the words of this 
proposition, which was too rapidly enunciated to 
allow her to comprehend it perfectly. Balthazar 
remembered that she had studied his favorite science, 
and said, making a mysterious sign: “You can't 
yet understand what I mean, you know.” And he 
appeared to sink again into one of those meditations 
which had become so habitual to him. 

“ I thought so,” said Pierquin, taking a cup of 
coffee from the hands of Margaret. “ Drive nature 
away and it returns at full gallop,” added he, in a 
low voice, to Madame Claes. “ You will have the 
goodness to speak to him yourself, the devil could 
not draw him out of his reverie. He’ll stay so till 
to-morrow.” 

He bade adieu to Claes, who pretended not to 
hear him, kissed little Jean, whom his mother held 
in her arms, and, after making a profound general 
bow, retired. When the front door was heard to 
close, Balthazar clasped his wife round the waist, and 
dispelled the unea'siness his feigned reverie had 
naturally caused her, whispering in her ear : — “ I 
knew how to get rid of him.” 

Madame Claes turned her face towards her hus- 
band, and was not ashamed to let him see the tears 
which filled her eyes ; they were so sweet ! She 
laid her head upon Balthazar’s shoulder, and allowed 
Jean to slide down to the ground. 


94 


The Alchemist, or 


“ Let us go into the parlor again,” she said, after a 
pause. 

During the whole evening Balthazar was exuber- 
antly gay. He invented a thousand games for his 
children, and played his own part so well that he did 
not perceive that his wife several times left the room. 
At half-past nine, after Jean had gone to bed, Mar- 
garet, on returning from helping Felicie undress, 
found her mother seated in her large arm-chair, talk- 
ing with her father, her hands clasped in his. She 
was afraid of interruj^ing them, and was about to 
retire without speaking ; but her mother observed 
her, and said : — “ Come here, Margaret, come, my 
dear !” Then drawing her towards her, she kissed 
her affectionately on the brow, adding : — “ Carry 
your book to your chamber, and go to bed early.” 

“ Good-night, my dear daughter !” said Balthazar. 

Margaret embraced her father, and then left them. 
Claes and his wife remained for a few moments alone, 
occupied in watching the last tints of twilight expire 
amid the dim foliage of the garden, whose outlines 
were now scarcely perceptible. When it was almost 
night, Balthazar said to his wife, in an agitated 
tone ; — “ Let us go up.” 

Long before English manners had consecrated a 
woman’s chamber as a sacred place, that of a Flemish 
wife had been impenetrable. The good housewives 
of the country did not do this as a display of virtue ; 
it was a habit contracted in their infancy, a domestic 
superstition which made a bed-chamber a delicious 


The House of Claes. 


95 


sanctuary, redolent of the tenderer sentiments, where 
simplicity united with the sweetest and holiest ele- 
ments of social life. In the peculiar position of 
Madame Claes, any woman would have sought to 
surround herself with the most elegant things ; but 
she had done so with exquisite taste, knowing the 
influence exerted upon our feelings by the aspect of 
the objects about us. This would have been a lux- 
ury with a pretty woman, with her it was a necessity. 
She understood the bearing of the words : “ a woman 
makes, herself pretty a maxim which controlled 
all the actions of Napoleon’s first wife, and often 
rendered her insincere, while Madame Claes was 
always natural and true. Though Balthazar was 
well acquainted with his wife’s chamber, his oblivion 
of the material facts of life had been so complete, 
that, on entering it, he experienced a thrill, as if he 
now saw it for the first time. The sumptuous gaiety 
of a victorious woman Avas displayed in the splendid 
colors of the tulips that stretched forth from the 
long necks of skilfully arranged China porcelain 
vases, and in the profusion of lights, the effect of 
which can only be compared to that of a joyous 
flourish of trumpets. The glow of the tapers gave 
a harmonious brilliancy to the drab silk furniture, 
the monotony of which was relieved by gold reflec- 
tions from certain articles in the room, and by the 
various colors of the flowers, which looked like 
sheaves of gems. 

The secret of all these preparations was Balthazar, 


96 


The Alchemist y or 


still Balthazar ! Josephine could not possible assure 
her husband more eloquently that he was still the 
source of her joys and her sorrows. The aspect of 
this chamber threw the mind into a state of delicious 
calm, and banished every melancholy thought, leav- 
ing nothing but a feeling of equable and pure con- 
tentment. The stuff of the hangings, purchased in 
China, shed around that soft, sweet odor, which 
penetrates the senses without fatiguing them. The 
curtains, carefully drawn, betrayed a desire for soli- 
tude, a jealous intention of keeping to herself the 
least word, and to imprison the very looks of her 
reconquered husband. Adorned with her own 
beautiful black hair, glossy and smooth, which fell 
down upon her shoulders like two wings of the 
raven, Madame Claes, wrapped in a dressing-gown 
which came up to her neck, to which was added a 
long pelerine, richly trimmed with lace, went and 
drew the tapestry over the door, thus excluding all 
noise from without. As she returned, she gave her 
husband, who was seated near the fire-place, one of 
those joyous smiles by which an intelligent woman, 
whose soul sometimes illumines her countenance, 
will impart irresistible hopes. A woman’s greatest 
charm consists in a constant appeal to the gener- 
osity of man, in a graceful acknowledgment of her 
weakness, by which she gratifies his pride, and 
awakens the most exalted feelings. Is not the con- 
fession of w^eakness compatible with the most magi- 
cal fascinations? 








The House of Claes, 


97 


When the rings of the curtain had silently run 
along their wooden rod, she turned towards her hus- 
band, and for an instant appeared to try to conceal 
her personal defects by leaning on a chair, so as to 
seem to move without effort. This was an appeal to 
her husband. Balthazar, for a moment lost in the 
contemplation of the olive-complexioned face which 
the grey back-ground threw into such beautiful 
relief, attracting and satisfying the eye, rose and 
carried his wife to the sofa. This was precisely 
what she wanted. 

^‘You promised me,” she said, taking his hand 
and holding it between her electrifying palms, “ to 
admit me to the secret of your researches. You 
must acknowledge, love, that I am worthy of know- 
ing it, for I have had the courage to study a science 
that the Church condemns, in order to be able to 
understand you ; but I am inquisitive, so don’t try 
to hide anything. Tell me by what chance you 
arose one morning gloomy and contemplative, when 
I had left you so happy the night before ?” 

“ So it is to talk about chemistry that you have 
dressed yourself so tastefully, is it ?” 

“ My dear husband, is not receiving a confession 
which admits me closer to your heart, the greatest 
pleasure I can have, is it not a communion of souls 
which embraces and begets all the felicities of life ? 
Your love has returned to me pure and intact, and 
I long to know what preoccupation has been power- 
ful enough to deprive me of it so long. Yes, T am 


98 


The Alchemist, or 


more jealous of an idea than of all the women on 
the earth. Love is great, but it is not infinite ; while 
Science has depths without limit, into which I can- 
not let you plunge alone. I hate whatever comes 
between us. Were you to obtain the glory you are 
striving after, I should be unhappy ; yet would it 
not give you the liveliest delight? No sir, I alone 
ought to be the source of your pleasures.’’ 

“ It was not an idea, my angel, but a man, who 
put me upon this new and splendid path.” 

“ A man !” she exclaimed in terror. 

“ Don’t you remember, Pepita, a Polish officer 
whom we entertained in 1809?” 

“ Can I ev-er forget him ?” she returned. “ I have 
often been vexed with my own memory for so per- 
sistently reminding me of those two eyes so like 
tongues of fire, those hollows above his eyebrows 
where glowed the very coals of hell, that broad bald 
skull, that turned-up moustache, that angular, 
haggard face ! Had there been a spare room in any 
of the inns, he should not have slept beneath our 
roof.” 

“ The name of this Polish gentleman Avas Adam de 
Wierzechownia,” Balthazar resumed. “ When you 
left us alone in the parlor, at evening, we began 
accidentally to talk of chemistry. Torn by Avant 
from the study of that science, our Pole had become 
a soldier. I think it Avas by means of a glass of sugar 
and Avater that we recognized each other as adepts. 
When I told Lemulquinier to bring me some sugar in 


The House of Claes. 


99 


lumps, the captain asked, with a gesture of surprise, 
‘Have you studied chemistry?' ‘With Lavoisier,' 
I replied. ‘You are very fortunate to be rich and 
your own master,' he exclaimed. And there burst 
from his chest one of those sighs which betray a 
world of sorrows hidden beneath the brow or 
imprisoned within the heart — it was something too 
ardent and concentrated for words to express. His 
meaning was completed by a glance that absolutely 
froze me. 

After a pause, he told me that as Poland was in a 
manner extinct, he had taken refuge in Sweden. 
There he had sought for consolation in the study of 
chemistry, for which he had always had an irresisti- 
ble passion. ‘ Well,' he added, ‘ I see that you have 
discovered, like me, that gum Arabic, sugar, and 
starch, reduced to powder, yield absolutely the same 
substance, and, upon analysis, give the same qualita- 
tive result.' He paused again, and after having gazed 
searchingly at me, he spoke to me confidentially, and 
in a low voice ; the general sense of his words alone 
remains in my memory ; but he uttered them with 
a depth of voice, with a warmth of inflexion and a 
force of gesture, which stirred my very bowels and 
struck my understanding as a sledge-hammer strikes 
the iron on the anvil. I will give you an outline of 
the arguments which, to me, were the coal that God 
laid upon Isaiah's tongue, for my studies with 
Lavoisier enabled me fully to comprehend their 
bearing. 


lOO 


The Alchemist, or 


“ ^ Sir,’ said he, ‘ the similarity of those three sub- 
stances, in appearance so distinct, has led me to think 
that all the productions of nature must have one 
common principle. The researches of modern 
chemistry have proved the truth of this law, as 
regards the more considerable portion of natural 
effects. Chemistry divides the entire creation into 
two distinct parts : organic and inorganic nature. 
Organic nature is certainly the most important por- 
tion of our world, if we include in it all those vege- 
table and animal creations which exhibit a more or 
less perfect organization, or, to be more precise, a 
greater or less capacity for motion, which determines 
their greater or less feeling. Now, analysis has 
reduced the products of this organic nature to four 
simple bodies, three of which are gases, azote, 
hydrogen and oxygen, and one of which is a simple, 
non-metallic, solid body, namely, carbon. On the 
other hand, inorganic nature, with its inconsiderable 
variety, with its incapacity for either motion or 
feeling, and to which we may safely deny that gift of 
growth which Linnasus rather hastily conceded it, 
reckons fifty-three simple bodies, different combina- 
tions of which form all its products. Now, is it likely 
that the means are more numerous where the ends 
are less numerous? The opinion of my old master 
is, that these fifty-three bodies have one common 
principle, modified in other days by a power now 
extinct, but which human genius is destined to revive. 

“ ‘ Now suppose for a moment that the activity of 


The House of Claes, 


lOI 


this power be re-awakened, we should have a unitary 
chemistry. Both organic and inorganic chemistry 
would probably rest upon four principles, and if we 
were to succeed in decomposing azote, which we 
must consider a negation, we should have but three. 
Here we are, then, close to the great Ternary of the 
ancients and of the alchemists of the Middles Ages, 
at whom we are wrong to laugh. Modern chemistry 
is not yet anything else. It is at once much and 
little. It is much, for chemistry is accustomed to 
recoil from no obstacle or difficulty. It is little, 
wffien we compare it with what remains to be done. 
Chance has greatly aided our beautiful science. For 
instance, the diamond, that tear of pure crystallized 
carbon, did it not seem the very last substance it 
was possible to create ? The ancient alchemists, 
who thought gold could be decomposed and conse- 
quently made, shrunk from the idea of producing 
the diamond ; we have nevertheless discovered the 
nature and law of its composition. As for me, I have 
gone farther still ! An experiment has convinced 
me that the mysterious Ternary, which has occupied 
mankind from time immemorial, will not be found 
in our present analyses, which have no tendency 
towards one fixed point. But first for the experi- 
ment : 

‘ Take some cress-seed (to choose one substance 
from the grand stores of organic nature) and sow 
them in a bed of some precipitate of sulphur (to 
choose a simple body again.) Moisten the seed with 


102 


The Alchemist, or 


distilled water, so that no foreign body may enter 
into the product of the germination. The seeds 
swell and grow in a medium perfectly known to us, 
nourished only by principles equally known to us 
by analysis. Cut the stalks of the plants from time 
to time, and keep them, so that you may have 
enough to yield a considerable weight of ashes, 
when you burn them, and that you may be able to 
operate upon a certain quantity. Very well ; now 
analyze these ashes, and you will find the same sub- 
stances precisely as if the cress had grown in earth, 
at the edge of the brook — namely, silicic acid, 
alumina, phosphate and carbonate of lime, carbonate 
of magnesia, sulphate and carbonate of potassium, 
and oxide of iron. Now these substances existed 
neither in the sulphur, a simple body which served 
as soil to the plant, nor in the water used in irriga- 
tion, the composition of which is known ; but as they 
did not exist in the seed either, we cannot explain 
these presence in the plant, unless we suppose an 
element common to the bodies contained in the cress, 
and to those used as a medium. Thus, the atmos- 
phere, the distilled water, the precipitate of sulphur, 
and the substances yielded by an analysis of the 
ashes, that is to say, the potassium, the lime, the 
magnesia, the alumina, must have a common princi- 
ple floating in the atmosphere, as the sun makes it. 
From this incontrovertible experiment,’ he cried, ‘ I 
have deduced the existence of the Absolute, a sub- 
stance common to all created things, modified by 


The House of Claes. 


103 


one single force ; such is the position, distinct and 
palpable, of the problem presented by the Absolute 
— one which to me seems solvable. There you will 
meet the mysterious Ternary, before which humanity 
has fallen on its knees since the world began : — the 
raw material, the means, the end. You will find the 
terrible number Three in every human thing ; it con- 
trols Religion, Science and Law. 

“ ‘At this point,’ he continued, ‘war and poverty 
tore me from my studies.' You are a pupil of 
Lavoisier, you are rich and master of your time. 1 
can therefore make you the confidant of my conjec- 
tures. This is the object which my personal experi- 
ence has enabled me to catch a glimpse of. One 
Matter must be the principle common to the three 
gases and to carbon. The Means must be the 
principle common to negative and positive electric- 
ity. Go bravely in search of the proofs necessary 
to establish these two truths, and you will have the 
supreme explanation of every effect in nature. 
Oh, sir, when a man carries there,’ he cried, striking 
his forehead, ‘ the solution. of the enigma of creation, 
by divining the Absolute, can it be called living to 
be dragged along amid those mobs of men who rush 
upon each other at a given moment, without know- 
ing what they are doing? My present life is pre- 
cisely the inverse of a dream. My body goes and 
comes, acts, exists, in the midst of fire, cannon and 
men, and traverses the continent of Europe at the 
pleasure of a power which 1 obey while I despise it. 


104 


The Alchemist, or 


My soul has no consciousness of these acts, it 
remains fixed, plunged in one idea, indurated, ossified 
by that idea — the search for the Absolute ! A prin- 
ciple by which seeds; in every respect alike, planted 
in the same spot, produce, these aVhite calix, those 
a yellow calix ! A phenomenon likewise applicable 
to silk-worms, which, fed upon the same leaves and 
formed without apparent difference, produce, these 
white silk, those yellow silk ! Equally applicable to 
man himself who often has, legitimately, too, chil- 
dren who resemble neither the father nor the mother ! 
Does not a logical deduction from this fact imply, 
involve, an explanation of all effects of nature? 

“ ‘ What, indeed, is more consistent with our idea 
of God than to believe that all the works of his hand 
were produced by the simplest means ? The Pytha- 
gorean worship of the One, from which the other 
numbers flow and which represents the One Mat- 
ter : the worship of the Two, the first aggregation 
and the type of all the others : the worship of the 
Three, which, from time immemorial, has symbolized 
God — that is to say. Matter, Power, and the Result ; 
was not this worship the sum of all that was tradition- 
ally and confusedly known of the Absolute ? Stahl, 
Becher, Paracelsus, Agrippa, all the great seekers 
for occult causes, had the Trismegistus, which 
means the Grand Ternary, for their rallying cry. 
The ignorant, accustomed to condemn Alchemy, 
that transcendent chemistry, are doubtless unaware 
that we are striving to justify the passionate investi- 


The House of Claes. 


105 


gations of those great men! The Absolute discov- 
ered, I should have grappled with Motion. Ah ! 
While I am living on gunpowder, and commanding 
men to rush uselessly to their death, my old master 
is heaping discovery on discovery, he is flying 
towards the Absolute ! As for me, I shall die like a 
dog in the corner of some battery 1’ 

“ When this poor great man had somewhat 
recovered his calmness, he said with a sort of touch- 
ing fraternity, ‘ If I hit upon an experiment worth 
making, I will leave it to you by will before I die.’ 
Pepita,” continued Balthazar, pressing his wife’s 
hand, tears of rage streamed down this man’s face, 
while he communicated to my soul the fire of this 
argument, one which Lavoisier had already timidly 
constructed, without daring to give himself up 
to it.” 

“ What I” exclaimed Madame Claes who could 
refrain no longer from interrupting her husband, 
“ this man, then, by passing one single night beneath 
our roof, robbed us of your affection, and destroyed, 
by one sentence, by one word, the happiness of a 
family 1 Oh, my dear Balthazar, did he make the 
sign of the cross? Did you examine him well? 
The Tempter alone could have that yellow eye 
which darts forth the Promethean fire! Yes, the 
demon alone could have torn you from me ! Since 
that day, you have been neither father, nor husband, 
nor the head of a family.” 

So,” said Balthazar, raising himself to his full 


io6 


The Alchemist, or 


height and casting a piercing look upon his wife, 
you blame your husband for elevating himself 
above other men, that he may lay the divine mantle 
of glory at your feet — a trifling offering compared 
to the treasures of your heart ! It’s plain you don’t 
know what I have done during the last three years ! 
I have taken giant steps, Pepita,” he said, with 
increasing animation. His face seemed to his wife 
more glorious with the fire of genius than it had 
ever been with the fire of love, and she wept as she 
listened to him. “ I have combined chlorine and 
azote ; I have decomposed bodies which were before 
considered simple ; I have discovered new metals. 
Why, Pepita,” he added, on seeing his wife’s tears, 
“ I have decomposed tears. A tear contains a little 
phosphate of lime and chloride of sodium, some 
mucus and a trifle of water.” 

He went on without noticing the terrible convul- 
sions which distorted Josephine’s features ; he was 
mounted upon Science, which bore him off,, on out- 
spread wings, far from the visible world. 

“ This analysis, my dear, is one of the strongest 
proofs of the system of the Absolute. All life implies 
combustion. According to the greater or less 
activity of the internal heat, life is more or less 
tenacious. Thus, the destruction of a mineral is inde- 
finitely retarded, because combustion in it is virtual, 
latent, or insensible. Thus, too, vegetables, which 
are constantly refreshed by a combination produc- 
ing moisture, may live any length of time, and 


107 


The House of Claes. 

several specimens, contemporary with the last flood, 
are still in existence. But whenever nature has 
perfected an organization, and, for some purpose, 
unknown to us, has furnished it with feeling, instinct, 
or intelligence — three marked degrees in an organic 
system — these three organisms require a combus- 
tion the activity of which is in exact proportion 
to the result obtained. Man, who represents the 
highest degree of intelligence, and who offers us the 
only organization producing a half-creative power, 
namely, thought^ is the being chosen from the whole 
animal creation, in which combustion is found in the 
most intense activity ; its most powerful effects are 
in a manner revealed by the phosphates, carbonates 
and sulphates that his body yields when analyzed. 
May not these substances be the traces left by the 
action of the electric fluid, the principle of all fructi- 
fication ? Does not electricity manifest itself in man 
in more varied forms than in any other animal ? 
Must he not have greater faculties than any 'other 
creature, to absorb larger portions of the absolute 
principle, and must he not assimilate them to him- 
self, in order to make from them, in his more perfect 
mechanism, his force and his ideas? I think so. 
Man is a cucurbit.* Thus, in my opinion, the idiot 
is a man whose brain contains the smallest propor- 
tion of phosphorus or any other electro-magnetic 

* An-egg shaped chemical vessel, employed in distillations, 
evaporations, sublimations, &c. — [ Translators. 


io8 


The Alchemist^ or 


product, the madman the one whose brain contains 
too much of it, the ordinary man the one who has 
but little, the man of genius the one whose brain is 
just sufficiently saturated with it. The man contin- 
ually in love, the porter, the dancer, the great eater, 
are those who displace the force accruing from their 
electric apparatus. In fact, our very feelings — ” 

“ Enough, Balthazar, you frighten me, you are 
committing sacrilege ! What ! Is my love nothing 
but — 

“ Disengaged etherial matter,” returned Claes, 
“and doubtless the explanation of the Absolute. 
Just think that if I am the first to discover it, to dis- 
cover it, to discover it ! ” As he uttered these 
words in three different intonations, his countenance 
gradually assumed the expression of inspiration. “ I 
can make metals, diamonds. I can create nature 
over again ! ” 

“And will you be the happier for it?” his wife 
cried in despair. “Accursed Science, denion of 
hell! You forget, Balthazar, that you are commit- 
ting the sin of pride, the sin that Satan was called to 
answer for. You are invading the province of God ! ” 

. “Ha! ha! God!” 

“ He denies God ! ” she exclaimed, wringing her 
hands. “ Claes, God possesses a power that you will 
never have.” 

“What power?” asked Claes, who, upon this 
argument which seemed to annihilate his beloved 
Science, looked tremblingly at his wife. 


The House of Claes, 


109 


“ The only existing power, Motion. I’ll tell you 
what I have gathered from the various books you 
have forced me to read: You may analyze flowers, 
fruits, Malaga wine; you may doubtless discover 
their principles, which may be produced, like those 
of your cress, in a medium that seems foreign to 
them ; you may, perhaps, find them in nature ; but, 
by bringing their principles together, can you make 
these flowers, these fruits, this Malaga wine ? Can 
you work the incomprehensible effects of the sun? 
Can you supply the climate of Spain? Decom- 
posing is not creating.” 

“ If I discover the constraining force, I can 
create.” 

“Oh, nothing will stop him,” cried Pepita, in 
accents of despair. “ My love is killed, I have 
lost my love!” She burst into tears; her eyes, kin- 
dled by her grief and the sacredness of the feelings 
they expressed, beamed more beautifully than ever 
through her tears. “Yes,” she continued, sobbing, 
“ you are dead for me, dead for everything. Science 
is more powerful within you than yourself, I see; 
and its flight bears you so far aloft that you can 
never descend again to be the companion of a poor 
woman. What happiness can I offer you ? Ah, 
could I but believe — a sad consolation — that God 
created you to manifest His works and sing His 
praises, that He placed in your breast this power 
that masters you ! But no, God is good, he would 
have left you some thought for a wife who adores 


I lO 


The Alchemist, or . 


you, for children whom it is your duty to protect. 
Yes, the demon only can aid you in walking alone 
amidst these labyrinths without issue, in this dark- 
ness where you are not enlightened by faith from 
above, but by a horrible belief in your own faculties ! 
Otherwise, would you mot have perceived that you 
have squandered nine hundred thousand francs in 
three years? Oh, do me justice, you who are my 
God on earth, I do not reproach you. If we were 
alone, I \vould bring you all my fortune on my 
knees, saying: — ‘Take it, cast it into your furnaces, 
make smoke of it.’ I would laugh as I saw it dance 
in the air! If you were poor, I would beg without 
shame for means to procure you coal for your 
alembics. In short, if, by throwing myself into your 
furnace, I could help you to find your execrable 
Absolute, Claes, I would do it joyfully, since you 
place your glory and happiness in this yet undis- 
covered secret. But our children, Claes, our chil- 
dren ! What will become of them, if you do not 
soon solve this infernal riddle? Do you know what 
Pierquin came for? He came for thirty thousand 
francs which you have not the means of paying. 
Your property is no longer your own. I told him 
you had the money, to spare you the embarrassment 
his questions would have caused you; but I thought 
of selling our old silver plate to discharge the debt.” 

She saw the eyes of her husband moisten, and she 
threw herself in a state of desperation at his feet, 
raising her clasped hands towards him. 


The House of Claes. 


1 1 1 


“ My love,” she cried, “ abandon your researches 
for a time ; let us economize the money necessary 
for your resuming them at a future period, if you 
cannot renounce the pursuit. Oh ! I do not con- 
demn it, I will blow your furnaces myself if you wish 
it ; but do not reduce our children to want ; you can 
no longer love them, science has ravaged your heart, 
do not leave them a life of wretchedness instead of 
the happiness you owed them. The feelings of a 
mother have often been the weakest in my heart, 
yes, I have often wished I was not a mother, that I 
might unite myself more closely with your soul, 
with your very being ! And now, to stifle my 
remorse, I must plead my children’s cause with you 
before my own.” 

Her hair had escaped from its confinement and fell 
down upon her shoulders ; her eyes flashed with a 
thousand emotions as with so many arrows ; she 
triumphed over her rival. Balthazar lifted her up, 
carried her to the sofa, and fell at her feet. 

“ So I have made you unhappy, have I ?” he said 
with the accent of a man awaking from a painful 
dream. 

“ My poor Claes, you will make us much more so, 
in spite of yourself,” she said, passing her hand 
through his hair. “ Come, sit down by me, here,” 
she added, motioning him to a seat upon the sofa. 

There, I’ve forgotten all about it, now that you have 
returned to us. Oh, we’ll redeem everything yet, 
dearest, but you will not leave your wife again, will 


I 12 


The Alchemist, or 


you ? Say you won’t. My great, my noble Claes, 
let me still exert that feminine influence over your 
excellent heart which is so necessary to the happiness 
of artists toiling in obscurity and to disconsolate 
great men. You may treat me roughly, you may 
kill me if you will, but you will allow me to oppose 
you a little for your own good. I will never abuse 
the power you grant me. Be famous, but be happy 
too. Do not prefer chemistry to us. We will be 
indulgent, we will let Science share your heart with 
us, but be just and give us our half. Is not my dis- 
interestedness sublime ?” 

This made Balthazar smile. With that wonderful 
tact that women possess, she had brought the loftiest 
of questions down to the province of pleasantry, 
where woman’s rule is undisputed. Though she 
seemed to laugh, however, her heart was so violently 
contracted that it recovered its wonted regularity 
with no small difficulty ; but when she saw Bal- 
thazar’s eyes glowing once more with the expression 
which delighted her, which was her glory, and which 
told her that she had regained the power she thought 
lost forever, she said with a smile : 

“Take my word for it, Balthazar, nature created 
us to feel, and though you would have us nothing 
but electrical machines, your gases and youretherial 
matter will never explain the gift we possess of 
vaguely discerning the future.” 

“ Yes,” he replied, “ by affinities. The power of 
vision which makes the poet, and the power of deduc- 


The House of Claes. 113 

tion which makes the savant, are founded upon 
invisible, intangible and imponderable affinities, 
which the vulgar class among moral phenomena, but 
which are nothing but physical effects. The prophet 
sees and deduces. Unfortunately these species of 
affinities are too rare and too' vague to be subjected 
to analysis or observation.” 

“ This,” she said, giving him a kiss to drive away 
the chemistry she had so unfortunately re-awakened, 
“ is an affinity, is it ?” 

“ No, it is a combination; two substances of the 
same sign produce no activity.” 

“ Oh, hold your tongue, hold your tongue,” she 
said, “ you will kill me with grief. I cannot bear to 
see my rival in the very transports of your love.” 

“ But my dear life, I think of nothing but you ; 
my labors are for the glory of my family. You are 
the object of all my hopes.” 

Am I ? Then look at me.” 

This scene had rendered her as beautiful as a 
young woman ; and of all her person her husband 
could see nothing but her head rising from a cloud 
of muslin and lace. 

“Yes, I was wrong to abandon you for Science. 
Now, if I should ever again return to my pre-occu- 
pations, — well, Pepita, you shall drag me from them. 
I consent that it shall be so.” 

She cast down her eyes and allowed him to take 
her hand, her greatest beauty, — a hand at once deli- 
cate and powerful. 


The Alchemist, or 


114 


“ Ay, but I require more,” she said. 

“You are so charmingly beautiful that you may 
ask for anything.” 

“Well, I want to destroy your laboratory and 
chain your Science,” she said, with the fire of love 
beaming from her eyes. 

“ Be it so ; chemistry may go to the devil !” 

“ This moment wipes out all my sorrows,” she 
replied. “ Now make me suffer as much as you 
like.” 

The tears gushed from Balthazar’s eyes. “ Oh, 
you were right ! I only saw you through a veil, 
and I no longer heard your voice.” 

“ If I only had been concerned,” she said, “ I 
would have continued to suffer in silence without 
raising my voice before my sovereign ; but your 
sons demand consideration, Claes. I assure you, 
that if you continue to dissipate your fortune thus, 
however glorious your object may be, the world 
will give you no credit for it, and its censure 
would fall upon your children. Should it not be 
enough for you, a man of so lofty -views, that your 
wife has drawn your attention to a danger you did not 
perceive ? But let us speak no more of this,” she 
said, with a bantering smile and glance. “ To-night, 
Claes, we will not be happy by halves.” 

The day following this evening so eventful in the 
history of this family, Balthazar Claes, who had 
doubtless made Josephine a promise relative to the 
cessation of his researches, did not visit his labora- 


The House of Claes, 115 

tory, but remained with her all day. On the mor- 
row, the family made preparations to go to the 
country, where they stayed two months, and whence 
they returned to the city for the single purpose of 
arranging for the festivity which Claes desired, as 
of yore, to give in celebration of his marriage. He 
now daily obtained fresh proofs of the entanglement 
of his affairs, the result of his chemical studies and 
of his neglect. Far from making matters worse by 
remarks, his wife was sure to find palliatives for 
such evils as were beyond redemption. Of the 
seven domestics employed by Claes, at the time of 
his last reception, there remained only Lemulquinier, 
Josette the cook, and an old chamber-maid named 
Martha, who had never quitted her mistress since 
she left the convent ; it was therefore impossible to 
receive the distinguished society of the city with so 
few servants. Madame Claes removed all difficul- 
ties by proposing to summon a cook from Paris, to 
train their gardener’s son to service, and to borrow 
Pierquin’s domestic. In this way, no one would 
notice the reduced state of their affairs. 

During the twenty days that the preparations 
lasted, Madame Claes skilfully managed to occupy 
her husband’s idleness ; now she commissioned him 
to choose the flowers to decorate the grand stair- 
case, the picture-gallery and the suite of rooms: 
then she sent him to Dunkirk to obtain specimens 
of those monstrous fish which form the glory of 
family tables in the department of the Nord. An 


The Alchemisty or 


1 16 


entertainment like that to be given by Claes was an 
important affair ; it involved a multitude of cares 
and an active correspondence, in a country where 
reputation for hospitality is such an incentive to the 
honor of a family, that a dinner is looked upon, both 
by the masters and servants, as a victory they are to 
win over the guests. The oysters were from Ostend : 
the grouse were ordered in Scotland : the fruits were 
sent from Paris : in short the very least accessory 
was in keeping with the patrimonial luxury of the 
house. Besides, the annual ball given by the Claeses 
had a sort of celebrity. Douay being then the shire- 
town of the department, this entertainment in a 
manner opened the winter season, and set the fashion 
for all those of the country round about. So, for 
fifteen years, Balthazar had endeavored to distin- 
guish himself, and had succeeded so well that stories 
were told, in a circle of twenty miles, of the dresses, 
the guests, the smallest details, the novelties which 
had been seen there and the events which had come 
to pass. 

These preparations prevented Claes from thinking 
of his search for the Absolute. On returning to his 
domestic habits and to social life, he recovered his 
self-love as a man, a Fleming, and the head of a 
family, and took pleasure in astonishing the country. 
He sought to give a character to the ball by some 
new feature, and he chose from among his luxurious 
fancies the prettiest, the richest, and the most 
evanescent: he made his house a grove of choice 


The House of Claes, 1 1 7 

plants, and arranged bunches of flowers for the 
ladies. The other accessories of the evening corres- 
ponded with this novel piece of extravagance, and 
nothing seemed likely to destroy its effect. But the 
twenty -ninth bulletin and private intelligence of the 
disasters experienced by the grand army in Russia 
and at the Beresina, were circulated after dinner. 
A deep and genuine sadness took possession of the 
Douaysians, who, from patriotic motives, unani- 
mously refused to dance. Among the letters from 
Poland, there was one for Balthazar. M. de Wierz- 
chownia, then at Dresden, where, he said, he was 
dying of a wound received in one of the late engage- 
ments, was desirous of bequeathing to his host 
several ideas which, since their meeting, had 
occurred to him relative to the Absolute. This let- 
ter plunged Claes into a profound reverie which did 
honor to his patriotism ; but his wife was not 
deceived by it. To her, the ball had a double aspect 
of mourning. So that the entertainment, in which 
the house of Claes emitted its last rays of glory, was 
in a degree sad and gloomy, in the midst of the 
magnificence and the accumulated curiosities of six 
generations, each one of which had had its passion, 
and which the Douaysians now admired for the last 
time. 

Margaret, now sixteen years old, and introduced 
by her parents to society on this occasion, was the 
belle of the evening. She attracted every eye by 
her extreme simplicity, by her ingenuous manners, 


ii8 


The Alchemisty or 


and above all by the harmony of her appearance 
with the house she lived in. She was the genuine 
Flemish girl, as the painters have represented her ; 
her head was perfectly round and full ; her chestnut 
hair was smoothed over her brow and divided into 
two bandeaus; her eyes were grey, tinged with 
green ; her arms were superb ; her embonpoint did 
not at all diminish her beauty ; her manner was 
timid, but upon her smooth, lofty forehead, great 
firmness was concealed beneath apparent evenness 
and sweetness of temper. Though she was neither 
reserved nor melancholy, she seemed but little dis- 
posed to gaiety. The habit of reflection, the gift of 
order, the sentiment of duty — the three principal 
expressions of the Flemish character — animated a 
face cold at the first glance, but at which you were 
apt to look again, attracted by the grace of her 
features and by a subdued pride which gave assur- 
ance of domestic happiness. By a singularity not 
yet explained by the physiologists, she did not bear 
the slightest resemblance to either her father or her 
mother, but was the living image of her maternal 
great-grandmother, a Conyncks of Bruges, whose 
carefully preserved portrait bore witness to the 
likeness. 

Supper gave some animation to the fete. Although 
the disasters of the army interdicted the amusement 
of dancing, no one thought they ought to exclude 
the pleasures of the table. The patriots retired 
early. The indifferent remained with a few card- 


The House of Claes. 119 

players and some of Claes’ intimate friends; but 
gradually this brilliantly illuminated house, in which 
all the notabilities of Douay had assembled, was left 
in silence, and, towards one o’clock in the morning, 
the gallery was deserted, and the lights were extin- 
guished from room to room. At length the court 
within, for a moment so brilliant, so animated, 
became once more dark and gloomy — a prophetic 
image of the prospect before the family. When the 
Claeses retired to their apartment, Balthazar gave 
his wife the Pole’s letter to read. She returned it 
with a gesture of despair ; she foresaw the future. 

In fact, from that day Balthazar but ill disguised 
the sorrow and weariness that weighed upon his 
spirits. In the morning, after the family breakfast, 
he played for awhile with his son Jean, chatted a 
little with his daughters, who were busy sewing, 
embroidering, or making lace; but he soon grew 
tired of the play and the chat, appearing to acquit 
himself of a mere duty. When his wife came down 
again, after dressing, she found him still seated in 
the same arm-chair, apparently looking at Margaret 
and Felicie, without being disturbed by the rattle of 
their bobbins. When the newspaper came, he read 
it slowly, like a retired merchant who does not know 
how to kill time. Then he got up, looked at the sky 
through the windows, sat down again, and stirred 
the fire thoughtfully, like a man deprived of the 
consciousness of his movements by the tyranny of 
his ideas. 


120 


The Alchemist, or 


Madame Claes keenly regretted her defective 
education and her want of memory. It was difficult 
for her to sustain an interesting conversation for any 
length of time. This, indeed, is perhaps impossible 
between two beings who have said their say, and are 
obliged to seek for subjects of distraction outside of 
a life of the affections or their purely material exist- 
ence. A life of the affections has its moments, and 
needs contrasts: the details of material existence will 
not long interest superior minds accustomed to 
prompt decisions : and society is insupportable to 
those that love. Two solitary beings who know 
each other thoroughly must seek their diversions in 
the lofty regions of thought, for it is impossible to 
offer what is small in exchange for what is immense. 
Again, when a man is accustomed to deal with grand 
and serious things, he becomes incapable of being 
amused, unless he has preserved that principle of 
innocence, in the depths of his heart, that simplicity, 
which renders men of genius so gracefully childish : 
but this infancy of the heart is a very rare phenom- 
enon with those whose mission it is to see all things, 
to know all things, and to comprehend all things. 

Madame Claes at first succeeded in this critical sit- 
uation by unparalleled efforts, suggested by love or 
necessity. Once, she determined to learn back- 
gammon, which she had never been able to play, but 
which, by a sufficiently intelligible miracle, she con- 
trived to master. Then she interested Balthazar in 
the education of his daughters, and begged him to 


The House of Claes. 


I2I 


lay out a course of reading for them. These 
resources were soon exhausted. There came at last 
a moment when Josephine, in presence of Balthazar, 
was like Madame de Maintenon in presence of Louis 
XIV. ; but without having, to distract her listless 
master, either the pomp of power or the resources 
of a court, — a court skilled in playing such farces as 
that of the “ Embassy from the King of Siam ” or 
“ the Sophie of Persia.” The monarch, who, after 
having squandered France, was reduced to the expe- 
dients of an expectant heir to obtain money, was no 
longer either young or successful, and felt his fright- 
ful impotence in the midst of his grandeur ; the royal 
nurse, who had always rocked the children well 
enough, did not succeed in rocking the father, who 
suffered for having trifled with men and things, with 
life and with God. But Claes suffered from too much 
power. Oppressed by an idea which clutched him 
closely, he dreamed of the pomp of Science, of 
wealth for the human race, of glory for himself. 
He suffered like an artist struggling with want, like 
Samson chained to the pillars of the temple. The 
effect was the same for these two sovereigns, though 
the intellectual monarch was crushed by his strength 
and the other by his weakness. What could Pepita 
do alone against this sort of scientific nostalgia ? 

After having exhausted the resources suggested 
by her household occupations, she called in society 
to her aid, by giving two caf6s a week. At Douay 
cafes take the place of teas. A cafe is an assembly 


122 


The Alchemisty or 


in which, during* a whole evening, the parties 
invited sip the exquisite wines and liquors with 
which the cellars of that comfortable country over- 
flow ; eat dainties, take clear coffee, or iced coffee 
and milk ; whilst the woman sing ballads, discuss 
their toilettes, or talk over the interesting nothings 
of the town. Precisely as in the pictures of Mieris 
or Terburg, without the red feathers in the gray 
pointed hats, without the guitars and the beautiful 
costumes of the sixteenth century. But the efforts 
made by Balthazar properly to play his part of mas- 
ter of the house, his forced affability, the artificial 
fireworks of his wit, all revealed the depths of the 
disease by the fatigue to which he was a visible prey 
the next day. 

These continual parties of pleasure; — feeble pallia- 
tives — bore witness to the serious character of the 
malady. The branches at which Balthazar caught 
as he rolled down the precipice delayed his fall, but 
made it all the heavier. Though he never spoke 
of his former occupations, though he never expressed 
a regret as he felt how impossible it was, in his 
situation, to resume his experiments, he had all the 
dull movements, the feeble voice, the depression of 
a convalescent. His lassitude was sometimes evinced 
by his abstracted manner of taking the tongs, and 
building a fantastic pyramid in the fire with frag- 
ments of coal. When evening came, he was visibly 
pleased ; sleep doubtless delivered him from his 
importunate thoughts. But he arose sadly on the 


The House of Claes. 


123 


morrow, as he saw another day before him, and he 
seemed to measure the time he had to consume as 
the weary traveler does the desert he has to cross. 

Though Madame Claes knew the cause of this 
languor, she wilfully refused to see the full extent 
of its ravages. Full of courage against the suffer- 
ings of the mind, she was powerless against the gen- 
erosities of the heart. She did not dare to question 
Balthazar, as he listened to the prattle of his daugh- 
ters or the merriment of little Jean, with the air of 
a man absorbed in his own thoughts ; but she shud- 
dered as she saw him struggle with his melancholy 
and courageously try to appear gay, that he might 
not depress those around him. The father’s fitful 
attentions for his daughters or his gambols with Jean 
called the tears to Josephine’s eyes; she left the 
room to conceal the emotion caused by a heroism 
the price of which women so fully realize, and which 
often breaks their hearts. Madame Claes would 
then be ready to exclaim, “ Kill me, and do as you 
will !” Balthazar’s eyes gradually lost their fire, 
and assumed that greenish tinge which is so painful 
in the eyes of the old. His attentions for his wife, 
his conversation, everything in him was slow and 
heavy. These symptoms, which became more 
alarming towards the close of April, terrified 
Madame Claes, to whom the spectacle was intolera- 
ble, and who had already reproached herself a 
thousand times, as she admired the Flemish fidelity 
with which Balthazar kept his word. One day. 


The Alchemist^ or 


1 24 


when he appeared more prostrate than ever before, 
she no longer hesitated at any sacrifice to restore 
him to life. 

‘‘ Balthazar,” she said, “ I release you from your 
oath.” 

He turned and gazed at her in astonishment. 

“You are thinking of your experiments, are you 
not ?” she asked. 

He replied by a gesture of fearful vigor. Far 
from remonstrating with him, Madame Claes, who 
had had plenty of time to sound the abyss into which 
they were both to fall, took his hand and smilingly 
pressed it, saying : “ Thanks, Claes, I am now sure 

of my power ; you have sacrificed more than your 
life to me. It is now my turn to make a sacrifice ! 
Though I have already sold a portion of my 
diamonds, there still remain enough, if I put those 
left by my brother with them, to obtain the money 
necessary for your labors. I intended them for orna- 
ments for our daughters, but will not your glory 
furnish them with more dazzling .gems ? Besides, 
you will one day return them their diamonds more 
brilliant than ever.” 

The joy which instantly illumined her husband’s 
face was the last drop in the cup of Josephine’s 
despair ; she saw with agony that his passion was 
stronger than himself. Claes had confidence in his 
undertaking, and could walk without trembling in a 
path which, to his wife, was a gulf. Thus, as he 
had faith, and she felt doubt, hers was the heaviest 


The House of Claes. 


125 


burden ; for women always suffer for two. At this 
period, she took pleasure in hoping for success, wish- 
ing to justify herself before her own conscience 
for her complicity in the probable destruction of 
their fortune. 

“ The devotion of a whole life would hardly suf- 
fice, Pepita,” said Claes, moved to tears. 

Scarcely had he uttered these words, when Mar- 
garet and Felicie entered, wishing them good day. 
Madame Claes cast down her eyes, and remained 
for a moment speechless before her children, 
whose fortune she had just sacrificed to a chimera ; 
whilst her husband took them on his knees, and 
chatted gaily with them, happy to be able to diffuse 
the joy that oppressed him. Henceforth Madame 
Claes participated in the ardent life of her husband. 
The future of her children, the consideration of 
their father, were motives as powerful with her 
as glory and science were with Claes. Thus this 
unfortunate woman no longer had one hour of peace, 
when all the family diamonds had been sold at Paris 
by the instrumentality of the abbe de Solis, her 
spiritual adviser, and the manufacturers of chemicals 
had recommenced sending their packages. Inces- 
santly agitated by the demon of Science and by the 
fury of research which consumed her husband, she 
lived in a state of continual apprehension, and 
remained like one dead for days together, nailed to 
her arm-chair by the very violence of her emotions, 
which, unlike Balthazar’s, found no food in the labors 


126 


The Alchemist, or 


of the laboratory, and therefore tormented her soul 
by acting upon her doubts and fears. At times, 
reproaching herself for yielding to a passion 
whose object was unattainable, and which M. de 
Solis condemned, she would get up, walk to the 
window of the interior court, and gaze with terror 
at the chimney of the laboratory. If she saw smoke 
rising from it, she contemplated it with despair, the 
most contrary ideas agitating her heart and mind. 
She beheld the fortunes of her children melting 
away in smoke ; but then she was saving the life of 
their father ; was it not her first duty to render him 
happy? This last thought tranquilized her* for a 
time. 

She had obtained permission to enter the labora- 
tory and remain there ; but she was soon forced to 
abandon this melancholy satisfaction. She suffered 
too much in finding that Balthazar took no notice of 
her, and often seemed annoyed by her presence ; she 
would then feel all the pangs of jealousy, and nurse 
a cruel inclination to blow up the very house; she 
well-nigh died of a thousand inconceivable miseries. 
Lemulquinier became a kind of barometer; if she 
heard him whistle as he came and went in serving 
breakfast or dinner, she guessed that her husband’s 
experiments were favorable, and that he conceived 
hopes of approaching success. If Lemulquinier was 
silent and dull, she contemplated him with a look of 
sorrow; Balthazar was dissatisfied. The mistress 
and the servant finally understood each other 


The House of Claes. 


127 


perfectly, notwithstanding^ the pride of the one and 
the lofty submission of the other. W eak and without 
defence against the terrible prostrations of her 
thoughts, Josephine succumbed to those alternations 
of hope and depression which, in her case, were ren- 
dered doubly oppressive by the inquietudes of the 
loving wife, and the anxieties of a mother trembling 
for her family. The desolating silence which for- 
merly chilled her heart, she now shared, without being 
aware of the dullness which prevailed in the house, 
or of the days which glided away in the parlor with- 
out conversation, without a smile, often without a 
word. With melancholy maternal foresight, she 
accustomed her two daughters to the duties of 
housekeeping, and endeavored to make them 
acquainted with some occupations fit for women, 
that they might obtain a livelihood if they came to 
want. The apparent quiet of the family was a cover, 
therefore, for many painful uncertainties. Towards 
the end of the summer Balthazar had consumed the 
proceeds of the diamonds sold in Paris through the 
old abbe de Solis, and was again indebted to Protez 
and Chiffreville in the sum of twenty thousand 
francs. 

In August, 1813, a year after the scene with which 
this history opens, Claes had made a few brilliant 
experiments, which, unfortunately, he despised, but 
his efforts had been without result as to the principal 
object of his researches. The day he finished the 
series of his labors, the consciousness of his impo- 


128 


The Alckemtsl, or 


tence crushed him ; the certainty of having fruit- 
lessly dissipated considerable sums filled him with 
despair. It was a terrible catastrophe. He left his 
garret, went down slowly to the parlor, threw him- 
self into a chair in the midst of his children, and 
there remained, for some minutes, like one dead, 
without replying to the questions so hurriedly asked 
him by his wife. He felt his tears rising, and escaped 
to his chamber that he might have no witness of his 
grief. Josephine followed him thither, and led him 
into her own chamber, where, alone with her, 
Balthazar gave full vent to his despair. Those tears 
of a man, those exclamations of a discouraged artist, 
those regrets of the father of a family, had features 
of terror, of tenderness, of madness, which gave 
Madame Claes more pain than all her past sorrows 
had done. So the victim consoled the executioner. 
When Balthazar said, with a frightful accent of con- 
viction: “Wretch that I am, I am gambling away 
my-children’s life and yours, I must kill myself to 
leave you happy ! ” the self-accusation went to her 
heart, and her knowledge of her husband’s character 
led her to believe he would at once execute his 
threat; she experienced one of those revulsions 
which disturb life at its source, and which was all 
the more fatal from the fact that Pepita restrained 
its violence by assuming a forced tranquillity. 

“ My dear,” she replied, “ I have consulted, not 
Pierquin, whose friendship for us is hardly so great 
as to prevent his feeling a secret pleasure in seeing 


The Hotise of Claes. 


1 29 


us ruined, but an old man, who is as kind as a father 
to me. The abbe de Solis, my confessor, has given 
me advice that may save us from ruin. He has been 
to see your pictures and thinks that the value of those 
in the gallery will pay off the mortgages on your 
property, and acquit your debt to Protez and Chiffre- 
ville; for you are no doubt indebted to them.” 

Claes made an affirmative sign by hanging down 
his head, the hair of which had become quite white. 

“ M. de Solis is acquainted with the Happs and 
Dunckers of Amsterdam; they are crazy for pic- 
tures, and anxious, as parvenus always are, to make 
a display which "old families can alone afford ; they 
would give the full value for ours. By this means 
we can recover our revenues, and from the amount, 
which will not be far from a hundred thousand 
ducats, you can take a portion and continue your 
experiments. Your two daughters and I will be 
contented with a pittance. With time and economy 
we shall fill the empty frames with other pictures, 
and you shall be happy !” 

Balthazar raised his countenance towards his wife, 
with a mixture of joy and fear. Their respective 
parts were changed, the wife became the protectress 
of the husband. This man, so tender, so devotedly 
attached to Josephine, held her closely clasped in his 
arms without perceiving the horrible convulsion 
which shortened her breath, and agitated her lips 
and hair with nervous tremors. 

“ I did not dare to tell you that between me and 


130 


The Alchemist, or 


the* Absolute there is scarcely a hair’s breadth left. 
To gasify metals nothing more is needed than to dis- 
cover a means of subjecting them to an immense 
heat in a medium where the pressure of the atmos- 
phere is null, that is, in an absolute vacuum.” 

Madame Claes could not endure the egotism of 
this reply. She expected passionate thanks for her 
sacrifice, and received a chemical problem. She 
broke from her husband, went down to the parlor, 
sank into her chair between her two terrified daugh- 
ters, and burst into tears. Margaret and Felicie 
each took a hand, knelt down beside her, weeping 
with her, without knowing the cause of her grief, 
and asking repeatedly : “ What is the matter, dear 

mother?” 

“ My poor children ! I am dying — I feel I am !” 

This reply alarmed Margaret, who, for the first 
time, perceived upon her mother’s countenance that . 
pallor peculiar to persons of a dark complexion. 

“ Martha ! Martha !” cried Felicie ; come ! 
mamma wants you !” 

The old duenna hastened from the kitchen, and on 
beholding the greenish paleness of her mistress’ 
slightly brown and highly colored countenance — 

“ Body of Christ !” she cried, in Spanish, “ Madame 
is dying !” 

She flew out of the room, told Josette to heat some 
water for a foot-bath instantly, and then returned to 
her mistress. 

. “ Do not alarm your master ; tell him nothing 


The House of Claes. 




about it, Martha !” cried Madame Claes. “ Poor dear 
girls!” she added, pressing Margaret and Felicie to 
her heart, with a gesture of despair, ‘‘ would that I 
could live to see you happily married ! Martha,” 
she continued, after a pause, “ tell Lemulquinier to 
go to M. de Solis, and beg him from me to come 
here.” 

This thunder-clap necessarily had an echo in the 
kitchen. Josette and Martha, both of whom were 
devoted to Madame Claes and her daughters, were 
stricken in the only affection they had. The terri- 
ble words: “Madame is dying — master has killed 
her ! be quick ! a mustard bath 1” drew several inter- 
jectional expressions from Josette, intended for 
Lemulquinier. The latter, cold and insensible, was 
seated eating at the corner of a table before one of 
the windows, through which the kitchen, which was 
as neatly kept as the boudoir of a coquette, was 
lighted from the court. 

“ It was sure to come to this,” said Josette, looking 
at the valet, and getting upon a stool to reach a 
kettle which shone like gold, down from a shelf. 
“ There isn’t a mother alive who could look coolly 
on and see a father amusing himself by fricasseeing 
a fortune like master’s, to make sausage meat of.” 

Josette, whose head, tied up in a round cap with 
ruches, resembled that of a German nut-cracker, 
glanced at Lemulquinier with a look of bitterness 
which the green hue of her little red-lidded eyes 
made almost venomous. The old valet shrugged 


132 


The Alchemist, or 


his shoulders in a style worthy of Mirabeau in a pet, 
and crammed his yawning mouth with a piece of 
bread spread with butter and chopped onions. 

“ Instead of bothering her husband, madame 
ought to give him money, we should soon be rich 
enough to swim in gold. There’s only the thick- 
ness of a copper Hard between us and — ” 

“ Well, then, why don’t you offer him the twenty 
thousand francs you’ve got saved up ? He’s your 
master ! If you are so sure of his doings — ” 

“ You know nothing about the matter, Josette ; 
there, go and boil your water, my good woman,” 
interrupted the Fleming. 

“ I know enough about it to know that there were 
a thousand marks worth of silver here, and that you 
and your master have melted them, and if you are 
allowed to go on, you’ll leave us without a rag to 
our backs.” 

“ And master,” said Martha, coming up, “ will kill 
our mistress to get rid of a woman who holds him. 
back and keeps him from making away with all his 
property. He’s possessed with a devil, that’s clear. 
The very least you risk in aiding him, Mulquinier, 
is your soul, if you’ve got one, for you stand there 
like a lump of ice, while everything here is in desola- 
tion. The young ladies are weeping like Magdalens. 
Come, run for the abbe de Solis.” 

“ I’ve got something to do for master, I’m going 
to tidy up the laboratory,” returned the valet. “ It’s 


The House of Claes, 


133 


too far from here to the Esquerchin neighborhood. 
Go yourself.” 

“ Did you ever see such a monster !” said Martha. 
“ Who’ll give madame her foot-bath ? Do you want 
me to leave her to die? All her blood has gone to 
her head.” 

“ Mulquinier,” said Margaret, coming into the 
room adjoining the kitchen, “ as you come back 
from Monsieur de Solis’, ask Dr. Pierquin to come 
to us immediately.” 

“ Ah ! Now you’ll go,” said Josette. 

“ Mademoiselle, master told me to arrange the 
laboratory,” said Lemulquinier, turning towards the 
women, at whom he gazed with the air of a despot. 

“ Father,” said Margaret to Claes, who came 
down-stairs at this moment, “ can’t you spare us 
Mulquinier to go an errand to the city ?” 

You’ll go, you ugly Chinaman,” said Martha, on 
seeing Claes place Lemulquinier at his daughter’s 
orders. 

The feeble attachment of the valet for the family 
was the great subject of dispute between the two 
women and Lemulquinier, whose indifference had 
greatly exalted the affection of Josette and the 
duenna. This quarrel, apparently so insignificant, 
had a great influence upon the destiny of the family, 
when, at a later period, they were in need of aid in 
their misfortunes. 

Balthazar now became abstracted again, and did 
not notice Josephine’s sickly condition. He took 


134 


The Alchemist y or 


Jean upon his knees and tossed him mechanically up 
and down, meditating upon the problem which he 
now believed he had the power to solve. He saw 
the foot-bath brought to his wife, who was not strong 
enough to leave the chair in which she was lying, 
and had remained in the parlor. He even saw his 
daughters waiting upon their mother, without asking 
the cause of their attentions and zeal. When Mar- 
garet or Jean started to speak, Madame Claes bade 
them be silent, pointing to Balthazar. A scene like 
this was of a nature to give Margaret food for reflec- 
tion, who, placed as she was between her father and 
mother, considered herself old and reasonable enoug-h 
to judge their conduct. There comes a time, in the 
domestic history of families, when the children 
become, voluntarily or involuntarily, the judges of 
their parents. Madame Claes saw the danger of 
this situation. Out of love for Balthazar, she sought 
to justify, in Margaret’s eyes, what was very likely 
to appear, in the impartial mind of a girl of sixteen, 
an error in her father. The profound respect which 
Madame Claes paid Balthazar in these circumstances, 
by sacrificing herself, that she might not disturb his 
meditations, impressed them with a terrible idea of 
the paternal majesty. But this sacrifice of self, con- 
tagious as it was, still further increased Margaret’s 
admiration for her mother, with whom she was more 
intimately connected by the daily incidents of life. 
This sentiment was based upon a sort of divination 
of her sufferings, the cause of which would naturally 


The House of Claes, 


135 

pre-occupy a young girl. No human power could 
prevent a word now and then escaping Martha or 
Josette, and revealing to Margaret the origin of the 
situation in which the house had been for the last 
two years. Spite of the discretion of Madame Claes, 
her daughter gradually unraveled, thread by thread, 
the mysterious web of their domestic drama. In a 
given time, Margaret Avould be her mother’s con- 
fidante, and, in the end, the most formidable of 
judges. 

Madame Claes, therefore, applied herself almost 
exclusively to influencing Margaret, and sought to 
make her share her own devotion for Balthazar. The 
firmness, the wisdom that she found in her daughter, 
made her shudder at the idea of a possible struggle 
between Balthazar and Margaret, when, after her 
own death, she should be succeeded by her in the 
management of the household. The poor woman 
had, therefore, cause to dread the consequences of 
her death more than her death itself. Her solicitude 
for Balthazar was manifested in the resolution she 
had just taken. By releasing her husband’s property, 
she assured his independence, and anticipated all 
disputes by separating his interests from those of 
his children. She hoped to see him happy till the 
time when she should close her eyes ; she trusted, 
besides, to bequeath the delicacy of her own heart 
to Margaret, who would continue to play the part of 
an angel of love, by exerting a tutelary and conser- 
vative authority over her family. She thus expected 


136 


The Alchemist, or 


that her affection would still shine from the depths 
of the tomb upon those who were dear to her. 
Nevertheless, she did not wish to lower the father 
in the eyes of the daughter by initiating her before 
the time, into the terrors with which Balthazar’s 
scientific passion inspired her. She studied Marga- 
ret’s soul and character, to learn whether she would 
become of herself a mother for her brothers and 
sister, an affectionate and tender wife for her father. 
The last days of Madame Claes were thus embittered 
by calculations and apprehensions which she did not 
dare to trust to any one. Feeling herself stricken 
in the very seat of life by this last scene, she fixed 
her gaze upon the future ; while Balthazar, hence- 
forth incapable of attending either to economy, his 
moneyed interests or his domestic duties, abandoned 
his mind to the Absolute. The profound silence 
which reigned in the parlor was disturbed only by 
the monotonous motions of Claes’ foot, which he 
went on moving up and down without noticing that 
Jean had left it. ^ Seated by her mother’s side 
and gazing upon her pale and agonized countenance, 
Margaret turned from time to time towards her 
father, astonished at his insensibility. The shutting 
of the street gate now resounded through the house, 
and the family saw the abbe de Solis, leaning upon 
the arm of his nephew, slowly crossing the court 
yard. 

“ Ah, there’s Monsieur Emmanuel,” said Felicie. 

“ Kind young man,” said Madame Claes, on per- 


The House of Claes. 


137 


ceiving Emmanuel de Solis, “ I am glad to see him 
again.” 

Margaret blushed at hearing the eulogy which 
thus escaped her mother. T wo days ago, the sight of 
this young man had awakened feelings in her heart 
before unknown, and had called forth thoughts in 
her mind until then inert. During the first visit 
paid by the confessor to his penitent, several of those 
imperceptible events which fill a large space in life 
had taken place ; their results were sufficiently 
important to require a sketch of the two new per- 
sonages introduced into the bosom of the family. 

Madame Claes had always acted upon the princi- 
ple of performing her devotional exercises in private. 
Her spiritual adviser, almost unknown to the family, 
now visited the house for the second time ; but there, 
as elsewhere, all felt a sort of emotion and admira- 
tion at the sight of the uncle and nephew. The abbe 
de Solis, an octogenarian with silvery hair, had a 
decrepit face, the whole vitality of which seemed to 
have withdrawn to his eyes. He walked with diffi- 
culty, for one of his little legs terminated in a dread- 
fully deformed foot, which, wrapped in a sort of 
velvet bag, compelled him to use a crutch when not 
aided by his nephew’s arm. His bowed frame, his 
withered body, offered the spectacle of a frail and 
suffering constitution sustained by a will of iron and 
a chastened religious spirit. This priest — a Span- 
iard, remarkable for his great intellect, his genuine 
piety, and his extended acquirements — had been sue- 


138 


The Alchemist^ or 


cessively a Dominican, the high-penitentiary of 
Toledo, and vicar-general of the archbishopric of 
Malines. Had it not been for the French Revolu- 
tion, the influence of the Casa-Reals would have 
raised him to the highest dignities of the Church ; 
but the sorrow he felt at the death of the young 
duke, his pupil, disgusted him with active life, and 
he gave himself entirely up to the education of his 
nephew, who was left an orphan at an early age. 
At the time of the conquest of Belgium, he had 
established himsolf in Madame Claes’ neighborhood. 
From his youth up, the abbe de Solis had professed 
an enthusiastic devotion for Saint Theresa, which 
led him, as did the tendency of his mind, towards 
the mystic side of Christianity. When he found in 
Flanders — where Mademoiselle Bourignon, as well 
as the Illuminee and Quietist writers, made the 
most proselytes — a flock of Catholics imbued with 
these opinions, he remained there, and all the more 
willingly from the fact that he was regarded as a 
patriarch by that peculiar communion who con- 
tinued to observe the doctrines of the Mystics, in 
spite of the censures which fell upon Fenelon and 
Madame Guyon. His morals were rigid, his life 
was exemplary, and he was believed to have ecsta- 
cies. Notwithstanding the alienation from the things 
of this world that a priest so severe should profess, 
the affection he bore his nephew made him attentive 
to his interests. When a matter of charity was 
under discussion, the old man laid the faithful of his 


The House of Claes. 


139 


church under contribution before having recourse 
to his own fortune, and his patriarchal authority was 
so well established, his intentions were so pure, his 
perspicacity was so rarely deceived, that every one 
complied with his demands. To get an idea of the 
contrast between the uncle and nephew, the reader 
may compare the old man to one of those hollow 
willows which vegetate at the water’s edge, and the 
young man to the sweet briar laden with roses, 
whose elegant and upright stem shoots forth from 
the bosom of the moss-covered tree, which it seems 
anxious to help to stand erect again. 

Emmanuel, who had been strictly brought up by 
his uncle, and was constantly by his side, like the 
maiden entrusted to the experienced matron, was 
full of that tingling sensibility, that half-dreaming 
ingenuousness, which are the transitory flowers of 
youth — hardy only in the soul well penetrated with 
religious principle. The old priest had repressed 
the expression of voluptuous sentiment in his pupil, 
by preparing him for the trials of life by continuous 
labor, and an almost cloistral discipline. This edu- 
cation, which would give Emmanuel to the world in 
all his innocence, and ensure his happiness if he 
wisely bestowed his first affections, had endowered 
him with an angelic purity, and given his person all 
that charm which belongs to women when young. 
His timid eyes — which spoke, however, of a strong 
and courageous soul — emitted a light that vibrated 
upon the heart as the sound of glass diffuses its 


140 


The Alchemist, or 


undulations on the ear. His expressive though regu- 
lar face, was remarkable for a great precision of con- 
tour, a happy purity of lines, and for the profound 
tranquillity which flows from a heart at peace. 
Everything in it was harmonious. His black hair, 
his brown eyes and eyebrows, threw into strong 
relief his fair complexion and lively color. His 
voice was what would be expected from such a face. 
His feminine movements harmonized with the mel- 
ody of his voice, with the tender purity of his glance. 
He seemed ignorant of the attraction exerted by the 
half-melancholy reserve of his attitude, the modesty 
of his language, and the respectful attentions he paid 
his uncle. 

On seeing him study the tortuous walk of the old 
abb6, and lend himself to his painful deviations that 
he might not counteract them, look out in advance 
for anything which might hurt his feet, and show 
him the best path, it was impossible not to recognize 
in Emmanuel those generous sentiments which make 
man sublime. He appeared so great in loving his 
uncle without judging him, in obeying him without 
ever disputing his orders, that every one was willing 
to see an example of predestination in the harmonious 
name given him by his god-mother. When the old 
man exercised his priestly despotism, either at home 
or in company, Emmanuel sometimes raised his head 
so proudly, as if to show what his power would be 
were he contending with any other man, that per- 
sons of spirit were strongly moved, like artists at the 


The House of Claes, 


141 


sight of a superb production — for lofty sentiments 
speak quite as loudly to the soul by living concep- 
tions as by art realizations. 

Emmanuel had accompanied his uncle in his first 
visit to Madame Claes, to examine the family pic- 
tures. Margaret, learning from Martha that the 
abbe de Solis was in the gallery, and desiring to see 
that celebrated man, had sought a pretext to rejoin 
her mother, in order to gratify her curiosity. She 
went in somewhat abruptly, affecting the levity 
beneath which young women so adroitly conceal 
their purposes, and, by the side of the bowed, cada- 
verous old man, dressed in black, saw the fresh and 
delicious face of Emmanuel. The looks of the two, 
equally youthful and ingenuous, expressed the same 
astonishment. Emmanuel and Margaret had doubt- 
less already seen each other in their dreams. Both 
lowered their eyes, and then raised them together, 
making a simultaneous confession. Margaret took 
her mother’s arm, spoke to her in a whisper, to give 
herself courage, and sheltered herself, so to speak, 
under the maternal wing, at the same time bending 
her neck, with all the grace of a swan, to look at 
Emmanuel, who still remained clinging to his uncle’s 
arm. Though the light of the gallery was skilfully 
diffused to bring out the merits of each picture, it 
was feeble enough to facilitate their furtive glances 
—the joy of timid lovers. Neither of them, doubt- 
less, even in thought, went so far as the if by which 
the passions begin ; but both felt that profound agi- 


142 


The Alchemist, or 


tation which stirs the heart, and the secret of vv’hich 
the young keep to themselves, either for the luxury 
of the thing, or from modesty. 

The first impression which determines the over- 
flow of a long restrained sensibility, is followed, in 
all young people, by the almost stupid amazement 
that the first sound of music causes in children. 
Some laugh and think, others do not laugh until they 
have thought ; but all who are destined to live on 
poesy or love, listen deeply, and then ask for the 
melody again, by a glance already lit up with 
pleasure, already rife with a thirst for the infinite. 
If we love, irresistibly, the spot where, in childhood, 
we were initiated into the beauties of harmony, if we 
remember the musician, and even the instrument 
with delight, how can we help loving the being who 
was the first to acquaint us with the music of life ! 
Is not the first heart which taught us to breathe the 
breath of love something like a fatherland? Em- 
manuel and Margaret were, the one to the other, 
that Musical Voice which awakens a dormant sense, 
the hand which draws aside the veil of clouds, and 
shows them the skies bathed by the fires of the 
south. When Madame Claes stopped the old man 
before a painting by Guido representing an angel, 
Margaret stretched her head forward to see what 
impression it would have upon Emmanuel, and the 
young man looked at Margaret to compare the mute 
expression of the canvas to the living expression of 
the creature. This involuntary and delicious flat- 


The House of Claes, 


H3 


tery was understood and appreciated. The old 
abbe praised the beautiful composition highly, and 
Madame Claes answered him, but the two young 
people remained silent. 

Such was their meeting. The mysterious light of 
the gallery, the quiet of the house, the presence of 
their near relatives, everything conspired to engrave 
the delicate features of this dreamy mirage more 
deeply upon their hearts. The thousand confused 
thoughts which had assailed Margaret became 
calmer, and made her soul one limpid surface, tint- 
ing it with luminous rays, when. Emmanuel stam- 
mered forth a few faltering phrases, on taking leave 
of Madame Claes. His voice, whose fresh and 
velvet-like sound filled her heart with an enchant- 
ment unknown before, finished the sudden revolu- 
tion Emmanuel had caused — one that he was to 
fructify to his own behoof ; for the man employed by 
destiny to awaken love in a young girl’s heart is 
often unconscious of what he has done, and so leaves 
his work incomplete. Margaret bowed in confusion, 
and said farewell by a look which seemed to express 
her regret at losing so pure and charming a vision. 
Like the child, she wanted the music over again. 
This adieu was exchanged at the foot of the old 
staircase, before the parlor door ; when she returned 
to the parlor, she looked at the uncle and nephew 
till the street gate closed upon them. Madame Claes 
had been too much occupied by the serious subjects 


144 


The Alchemisty or 


discussed in her interview with her confessor, to 
observe her daughter’s physiognomy. 

When Monsieur de Solis and his nephew now 
appeared for the second time, she was still too 
violently agitated to notice the flush which over- 
spread Margaret’s face and revealed the fermenta- 
tion of the first pleasure received in her virgin heart. 
When the abbe was announced, Margaret hastily 
took up her work, and seemed so very devoted to it 
that she bowed to the uncle and nephew without 
looking at them. Monsieur Claes returned the 
abfie’s salutation mechanically, and left the room 
like a man carried away by his meditations. The 
pious Dominican sat down by Josephine, sounding 
^^Hher by one of those looks by which he penetrated 
the soul ; for the sight of Claes and his wife was 
enough to enable him to divine a catastrophe. 

Young people,” said the mother, “go and walk 
the garden. Margaret, show Emmanuel your 
father’s tulips.” 

’ Margaret, half abashed, took Felicie’s arm, and 
looked at the young man, who went out of the 
parlor seizing Jean by way of support. When they 
were all four in the garden, Felicie and Jean went 
their own way, leaving Margaret almost alone with 
young de Solis ; she led him to the clump of tulips, 
invariably arranged in the same fashion every year 
by Lemulquinier. 

“Do you like tulips?” asked Margaret, after 





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The House of Claes. 145 

remaining a minute in profound silence, which 
Emmanuel did not seem inclined to break. 

Mademoiselle, they are beautiful flowers ; but 
to love them one must have a taste for them, and 
know how to appreciate their b.eauties. These 
flowers dazzle me. My habit of studying in the 
little dark chamber where I live, close to my uncle, 
leads me, no doubt, to prefer what is softer to the 
sight.” 

While saying these words, he looked at Margaret, 
but the look, full of confused desires as it was, con- 
veyed no allusion to the smooth whiteness, the calm- 
ness, or the pale colors, which made her face a 
flower. 

“Do you study much, then?” replied Margaret, 
leading Emmanuel to a bench with a green back. 
“ From here you will not see the tulips so close ; 
they will fatigue your eyes less. You are right — 
the colors dance in the view and injure the sight.” 

“What do I study?” returned the young man, 
after a moment’s silence, during which he smoothed 
the sand of the path with his foot. “ I study all 
sorts of things. My uncle wanted to make me a 
priest.” 

“ Oh !” said Margaret, innocently. 

“ I resisted ; I felt it was not my vocation ; but it 
required great courage to oppose the wishes of my 
uncle : he is so good, and he loves me so much. 
He lately bought a substitute for me, to save me 
from the conscription, poor orphan that I am!” 


The Alchemist, or 


146 

“ What do you intend to be yourself, then ?” 
asked Margaret, who appeared to wish afterwards 
to recall her words, and allowed a gesture to escape 
her, adding : “ Excuse me, sir, you must think me 

very curious;” . 

“Oh, mademoiselle,” said Emmanuel, looking at 
her with as much admiration as tenderness, “ nobody 
except my uncle has ever put me that question 
before. I am studying to be a professor. What 
else can I do ? I am not rich. If I can become the 
principal of a college in Flanders, I shall have the 
means of living modestly, and shall marry some 
simple girl, whom I will tenderly love. Such is the 
life I have in view. Perhaps that is why I prefer a 
daisy upon which everybody treads, in the plain of 
Orchies, to these beautiful tulips, shining with gold, 
purple, sapphires, and emeralds, representing a 
life of pomp, whilst the daisy represents a calm, 
patriarchal life — the life of a poor professor, such as 
I shall be.” 

“ I have always been accustomed to call the 
flower you name daisies, marguerites,” she said. 

Emmanuel de Solis blushed excessively, and 
sought a reply, whilst tracing figures in the sand 
with his feet. Embarrassed which to choose of all 
the ideas that rose to his mind, and that appeared 
foolish ; then, confused by his delay in answering, 
he said : “ I did not dare to pronounce your name 

” He could not finish. 

“Professor!” she resumedo 


The Hozcse of Claes. 


H7 


“ Oh, mademoiselle, I wish to be a professor to 
gain a living ; but 1 shall undertake works which 
may render me more widely useful. I have a great 
taste for historical researches.” 

“ Indeed !” 

That “ indeed !” full of secret desires, abashed the 
young man still more, and he began to laugh rather 
awkwardly, saying: “You make me talk of myself, 
mademoiselle, when I ought to talk only of you.” 

“ My mother and your uncle have finished their 
conversation, I believe,” she replied, looking into 
the parlor windows. 

“ I find your mother much changed, mademoi- 
selle.” 

“ She suffers much, without telling us the cause of 
her sufferings, and we can only sympathize with her 
sorrows.” 

Madame Claes, in fact, had just closed a delicate 
consultation, the subject of which was a case of con- 
science, that the abbe alone could decide. Foresee- 
ing complete ruin, she wished to retain, unknown to 
Balthazar, who cared little, about his affairs, a con- 
siderable sum out of the proceeds of the pictures M. 
de Solis had sold in Holland, and to conceal -and 
reserve it for the time when the family should be 
reduced to want. 

After mature deliberation, and after having 
weighed the circumstances in which Madame Claes 
was placed, the old Dominican had approved such 
an act of prudence. He left her to attend to the 


148 


The Alchemist, or 


sale, which was to be a secret transaction, so as not to 
lower the consideration in which the Claeses were 
held. The old man sent his nephew with a letter to 
Amsterdam, where Emmanuel, delighted at being 
able to render a service to the Claes family, succeeded 
in selling the pictures of the gallery to the celebrated 
bankers Happe and Duncker, for an ostensible sum of 
eighty-five thousand Dutch ducats, and the addi- 
tional sum of fifteen thousand more which were to be 
secretly paid to Madame Claes. The pictures were 
so well known, that the reply of Balthazar to a letter 
Messrs. Happe and Duncker addressed him, sufficed 
to close the bargain. Emmanuel de Solis was 
authorized by Claes to receive the price of the pic- 
tures ; they were forwarded to him privately, that 
the city of Douay might know nothing of the sale. 

Towards the end of September, Balthazar repaid 
the money that had been lent him, released his prop- 
erty, and resumed his labors; but the house of Claes 
was despoiled of its noblest ornament. Blinded by 
his passion, he exhibited not the least regret, he 
believed himself so certain of being able to repair the 
loss quickly, that he had stipulated in the contract 
that he might redeem the pictures. A hundred 
painted bits of canvas were nothing in the eyes of 
Josephine, in comparison with domestic happiness 
and the gratification of her husband ; besides, she 
filled the gallery with the pictures which ornamented 
the reception-rooms, and to conceal the void they 
left in the front house, she changed its furniture. 


The House of Claes, 


149 


His debts being paid, Balthazar had about two 
hundred thousand francs left, with which to recom- 
mence his experiments. The abbe and his nephew 
were the depositaries of the fifteen thousand ducats 
reserved for Madame Claes. To increase this sum, 
the abbe sold the ducats, to which the events of the 
continental war had given a higher value. One 
hundred and sixty-six thousand francs, in silver, 
Avere buried in the cellar of the house inhabited by 
the abbe de Solis. Madame Claes had the melan- 
choly satisfaction of seeing her husband closely 
absorbed for eight months. Nevertheless, too 
severely affected by the blow thus dealt her, she 
sank into a state of languor which would necessarily 
grow worse. Science so completely consumed Bal- 
thazar, that neither the reverses of France, nor the 
first fall of Napoleon, nor the return of the Bour- 
bons, could divert his attention from his occupations ; 
he was neither a husband, father, nor citizen — he was 
a chemist. 

Towards the end of the year 1814, Madame Claes 
had declined so rapidly that she no longer left her 
bed. Unwilling to vegetate in her chamber, where 
she had lived so happily, where the remembrances 
of her departed joys would have suggested involun- 
tary comparisons with the present which would 
crush her at once, she remained in the parlor. The 
physicians had favored this aspiration of her heart 
by pronouncing the room more airy, more cheerful, 
and more suitable to her situation than her chamber. 


The Alchemist y or 


150 

The bed in which this unfortunate woman closed her 
life, was placed between the chimney-piece and the 
window looking into the garden. There she passed 
her last days, piously occupied in perfecting the 
minds of her two daughters, upon whom she 
delighted to direct the glowing radiations of her 
own. Weakened in its manifestations, conjugal love 
now permitted maternal love to display itself. The 
mother thus became the more charming from having 
delayed to be so. Like all generous persons, she 
experienced sublime feelings of delicacy, which she 
took for remorse. Believing that she had withheld 
from her children a tenderness that was due to them, 
she sought to redeem these imaginary wrongs by 
fond attention and solicitude which rendered her 
dearer to them than ever. She wished, in some sort, 
to have them live against her heart, to cover them 
with her drooping wings, and to love them enough 
in one day to atone for all those in which she fancied 
she had neglected them. Her sufferings gave to her 
endearments and to her words an unctuous warmth 
which seemed exhaled from her very soul. Her 
eyes caressed her children before her voice affected 
them by its benignant intonations, and her hand 
appeared to be always shedding benedictions upon 
them. 

Though, after having regained its habits of com- 
fort, the house of Claes no longer received visitors ; 
though its isolation became more complete ; though 
Balthazar gave no fete on the anniversary of his 


The Hotcse of Claes. 


15 


marriage, the city of Douay was not at all surprised. 
In the first place, the ill health of Madame Claes 
appeared a sufficient reason for the change ; then 
the payment of his debts stopped the flow of scan- 
dal ; and lastly, the political vicissitudes to which 
Flanders was subjected, the war of the Flundred 
Days, and a foreign occupation, caused the chemist 
to be completely forgotten. During these two 
years, the city was so often upon the point of being 
taken, so consecutively occupied either by the 
French or their enemies ; there came thither so 
many foreigners, so many country people sought 
refuge there, so many interests were involved, so 
many lives were at stake, so many changes and mis- 
fortunes occurred, that every one had enough to do 
to think of himself. The abbe de Solis and his 
nephew, and the two brothers Pierquin, were the 
only persons who visited Madame Claes. 

The winter of 1814-15 was to her a long and pain- 
ful agony. Her husband very rarely came to see 
her ; he occasionally remained with her a few hours 
after dinner ; but as she no longer had strength to 
sustain a long conversation, he would give utterance 
to one or two sentences, eternally the same, seat 
himself down, and hold his tongue, leaving a dismal 
silence to brood over the parlor. 

This monotony was broken on the days when the 
abbe de Solis and his nephew spent the evening at 
the house. Whilst the old abbe played at back- 
gammon with Balthazar, Margaret chatted with 


152 


The Alchemist^ or 


Emmanuel near the bed of her mother, who smiled 
at their innocent joy without showing how sweet 
and yet painful was the fresh breeze of this virginal 
love to her bruised spirit. The inflection of voice 
which charmed these two young creatures went to 
her very heart, and the surprised glance of intelli- 
gence that passed between them, reminded her, half 
dead as she was, of those young and happy hours 
which gave to the present all its bitterness. 
Emmanuel and Margaret had tact and delicacy 
enough to lead them to repress the delicious child- 
ishness of love, that they might not offend the sor- 
rowing woman, the cause of whose griefs they 
instinctively guessed. 

No one has hitherto remarked that the sentiments 
have a life which is all their own, a nature which 
proceeds from the circumstances in the midst of 
which they are produced ; they preserve both the 
physiognomy of the places where they grow up, 
and the impression of the ideas which influenced 
their development. There are passions ardently 
conceived which I'emain ardent like that of Madame 
Claes for her husband ; there are sentiments upon 
which everything smiles, and which retain their 
morning freshness; their harvests of joy are gar- 
nered with laughter and festivity. But there are 
also loves to be met with fatally beset with melan- 
choly, or^ girded about by misfortune, whose pleas- 
ures are painful, costly, loaded with fears, poisoned 
by remorse, or full of despondency. The love that 


The House of Claes. 


153 


lay buried in the hearts of Emmanuel and Margaret 
without either of them yet knowing that love was 
concerned in the matter ; the sentiment born beneath 
the dark arch of the Claes gallery, before an old, 
severe abbe, in a moment of calm and silence ; that 
love, grave "and discreet, but abounding in secret 
delights, heightened in enjoyment like grapes stolen 
from a vineyard corner — bore the brown colors, the 
gray tints, which characterized its early hours. Not 
daring to give themselves up to any lively demon- 
stration before this bed of grief and sickness, the 
two young people unconsciously increased their 
pleasures by a concentration which pressed them 
down to the very bottom of their hearts. 

What attentions were lavished upon the sick 
woman, and how Emmanuel delighted to share 
them, happy in being able to join with Margaret, by 
constituting himself, beforehand, the son of her 
mother! Melancholy thanks upon the lips of the 
young girl took the place of the honeyed language 
of lovers. The sighs from their hearts, enraptured 
at some secretly exchanged look, were distinguished 
but little from the sighs drawn from them by the 
sight of maternal suffering. Their happy little 
moments of indirect avowals, of half-finished prom- 
ises, of suppressed aspirations, might be compared 
to the allegories painted by Raphael upon dark 
backgrounds. They both had a certainty which 
they did not confess, even to themselves; they knew 
the sun \yas nbove them, but they did not know 


154 


The Alchemist, or 


what wind would drive away the black clouds piled 
high above their heads ; they doubted the future, 
and, apprehensive that sorrow would be their life- 
long portion, they remained timidly in the shades of 
their twilight, without daring to ask each other. 

Shall we finish the day together?” 

Nevertheless, the tenderness Madame Claes 
evinced for her children, nobly concealed all that 
she concealed from herself. Her children caused 
her neither agitation nor terror; they were her con- 
solation, but they were not her life ; she lived by 
them, but she died lor Balthazar. However painful 
the presence of her husband was to her, as he sat 
abstracted for whole hours together, and casting 
towards her, from time to time, a monotonous 
glance, she never forgot her griefs except during 
those cruel moments. The indifference of Balthazar 
for his dying wife would have appeared criminal to 
any stranger who witnessed it; but Madame Claes 
and her daughters were accustomed to it ; they knew 
the heart of the man, and absolved him. If, in the 
course of the day, Madame Claes underwent any 
dangerous crisis, if she found herself worse, if she 
seemed at the point of death, Claes was the only 
person in the house, and almost in the city, who was 
ignorant of it. Lemulquinier, his valet, knew it ; but 
neither his daughters, upon whom their mother 
imposed silence, nor his wife, informed him of the 
peril of the gr^atyre whom he formerly so ardently 
loved, 


The House of Claes, 


^55 


When his step was heard in the gallery, as he was 
coming down to dinner, Madame Claes was happy, 
she was about to see him, and she collected all her 
strength to enjoy that pleasure. As he entered, the 
pale, half-dying woman’s face was suffused with 
color, and wore an appearance of health ; the chemist 
came to her bedside, took her hand, and saw her 
under too flattering auspices ; to him alone she was 
well. When he said to her, “My dear wife, how do 
you find yourself to-day?” she would reply, “ Bet- 
ter, my dear husband ! ” leading the absent-minded 
man to believe that on the morrow she would be up 
and about again. 

Balthazar’s pre-occupation was so great, that he 
supposed the disease of which his wife was dying 
was a 'simple indisposition ; dying, in the eyes of 
everybody else, she was living in his. A complete 
separation of the married couple was the result of 
this year. Claes slept at a distance from his wife, 
rose early in the morning, and shut himself up in his 
laboratory or his closet; seeing her only in the pres- 
ence of his daughters, or the two or three friends 
who called to visit her, he soon learned to do with- 
out her. The two beings whose very thoughts were 
formerly in unison, now had few, very few, of those 
moments of communion, of confidence, of out- 
pouring, which constitute a life of the affections, and 
then a time arrived when these rare enjoyments 
ceased altogether. Physical suffering came to the 
poor woman’s aid, and helped her to endure a void, 


156 


The Alchemist, or 


a separation, which would have killed her had she 
been living. She experienced such acute pains, that, 
sometimes, she was glad that he whom she still loved 
was not a witness of them. She contemplated 
Balthazar during a part of the evening, and knowing 
him to be happy in his own way, she espoused the 
happiness she had procured him. This poor enjoy- 
ment satisfied her, she no longer asked herself if she 
were beloved, she forced herself to think so, and 
glided along upon that sheet of ice without daring 
to bear hard upon it, lest she might break it and 
drown her heart in the frightful chaos beneath. 

As no event disturbed this calm, and as the disease 
which was slowly consuming Madame Claes con- 
tributed to this internal peace, by maintaining her 
conjugal affection in a passive state, she reached 
without difficulty the early part of the year 1816 in 
this melancholy manner. 

Towards the end of Februar}^, Pierquin, the notary, 
dealt the blow which hurried this angelic woman, 
whose soul, the abbe de Solis said, was almost with- 
out sin, to her grave. 

“ Madame,” he whispered in her ear, at a moment 
when her daughters could not hear their conversa- 
tion, “ M. Claes has desired me to borrow three hun- 
dred thousand francs upon his property — take all the 
measures you can to assure your children’s fortune.” 

Madame Claes clasped her hands, raised her eyes 
towards heaven, and thanked the notary by a gentle 
inclination of the head, and by a smile so sad, that 


157 


The House of Claes. 

even he was moved by it. This sentence was a blow 
from a poinard, and it killed Pepita. During the 
day she abandoned herself to reflections which 
swelled her heart to bursting ; she felt in one of 
those conditions in which the traveler, having lost 
his balance, is thrown by a mere pebble to the bot- 
tom of the precipice whose edge he has long and 
courageously trodden. 

When the notary was gone, Madame Claes desired 
Margaret to bring her writing materials, collected 
her thoughts, summoned all her strength, and 
remained some minutes drawing up a memorandum 
relative to her will. She stopped several times to 
gaze at her daughter. The time for confidence had 
come. In managing the house during her mother’s 
illness, Margaret had realized the hopes of her 
dying parent so well, that the latter viewed the 
future of her family with trust, at seeing herself 
revived in this loving and self-reliant angel. There 
could be no doubt that these two women foresaw 
they had mutual and sad confessions to make ; the 
daughter looked at her mother as soon as the 
mother looked at her, and tears sprang to the eyes 
of both. 

Several times Margaret when Madame Claes was 
resting, said, “ Mother !” as if to speak, and then 
stopped, as if suffocated, though her mother, who 
was too much engaged by her last thoughts, did not 
ask her the cause of the interrogation. At length, 
Madame Claes wanted to seal her letter ; Margaret, 


158 


The Alchemist, or 


who held a candle, discreetly drew back, to avoid 
seeing the address. 

You may read it, my child !” said her mother in 
an agonized tone. 

Margaret saw her mother trace these words, “ To 
my daughter Margaret T 

“ We will talk when I have rested a little,” she 
added, as she put the letter under her pillow. 

She then sank back as if exhausted by the effort, 
and slept for several hours. When she awoke, her 
two sons and her two daughters were kneeling by 
the side of her bed, and were praying with fervor. 
It was Thursday ; Gabriel and Jean had just arrived 
from school with Emmanuel de Solis, who had been 
appointed professor of history and philosophy six 
months before. 

My dear children ! we must bid each other fare- 
well !” she cried, you have not abandoned me ! 
but he who ” She could not finish. 

“ M. Emmanuel,” said Margaret, seeing her 
mother turn pale ; “ go and tell my father mamma is 
worse.” 

The young man went up to the laboratory, and 
after having, through Lemulquinier, obtained a hear- 
ing from Balthazar, the latter replied to his pressing 
entreaty, I am coming.” 

“ My young friend,” said Madame Claes to 
Emmanuel when he had come back, “ take my two 
sons with you, and go and fetch your uncle. I 
believe it is necessary that the last sacraments should 


The House of Claes. 


^59 


be given me ; I wish to receive them from his 
hands.” 

When she was alone with her daughters, she made 
a sign to Margaret, who, understanding her mother, 
sent Felicie away. 

“ I wanted to speak to you, too, mamma,” said Mar- 
garet, who not believing her mother so ill as she 
was, made a blunder still worse than that of Pier- 
quin ; “ for the last ten days I have had ho money for 
home expenses, and I owe the servants six months 
wages. I was twice on the point of asking my father 
for money, but I did not dare. Did you know that 
the pictures in the gallery and the cellar have all 
been sold ?” 

He never told me a word of that !” cried 
Madame Claes. “ Oh God ! my God ! you recall me 
to yourself in time ! My poor children, what will 
become of you ?” 

She put up a fervent prayer, which colored her 
eyes with the fires of repentance. “ Margaret,” she 
^said, taking the letter from under the pillow ; “ here 
is a document you must not open or read till the 
moment when, after my death, you are in the greatest 
distress, that is to say, when there is no bread in the 
house. My beloved Margaret, love your father 
dearly, but take care of your sister and brothers. 
In a few days, in a few hours, perhaps, you will be 
at the head of the household. Be economical. If 
you find yourself opposed to your father’s will — and 
the case may happen, for he has spent large sums in 


i6o 


The Alchemist^ or 


searching for a secret, the discovery of which would 
crown him with immense glory and wealth ; he will, 
doubtless, want money, perhaps he will ask you for 
some — then show all a daughter’s tenderness, and 
learn to reconcile the interests of which you will be 
the protectress, with what you owe your father, a 
great man who sacrifices his happiness to the honor 
of his family. He cannot do wrong but in appear- 
ance ; his intentions will always be noble ; he is so 
excellent, his heart is full of dove, you will see him 
kind and affectionate again ! I have thought it my 
duty to speak thus to you on the verge of the grave, 
Margaret. If you wish to soften the pangs of death, 
you will promise me, my child, to replace me with 
your father, never to cause him sorrow ; never 
reproach him with anything, do not venture to judge 
him ! In short, be a gentle and affectionate media- 
tress, until, your work terminated, he shall again 
become the head of his family.” 

“ I understand you, my beloved mother,” said 
Margaret, kissing the inflamed eyes of her dying 
parent, “ and I will act as you desire.” 

“ Do not marry, my angel,” resumed Madame 
Claes, “ till Gabriel is able to succeed you in manag- 
ing the affairs of the house. Your husband, if you 
were to marry, might not perhaps share your feel- 
ings, would bring trouble into the family, and tor- 
ment your father.” 

Margaret looked at her mother, and said, “ Have 


The House of Claes. 


i6i 


you no other advice to give me respecting my mar- 
riage ?” 

“Would you hesitate, my dear child ?” said the 
dying woman, in terror. 

“ No,” she replied, “ I promise to obey you.” 

“ Poor child, I was not able to sacrifice myself for 
you,” added the mother, shedding scalding tears, 
“ and I now require you to sacrifice yourself for all. 
Happiness makes us selfish. Yes, Margaret,'! have 
been weak because I was happy. Be strong, preserve 
your reason for those who have none here. Act so 
that your brothers and sister may never accuse me. 
Love your father dearly, and do not thwart him — 
too much.” 

She laid her head upon her pillow, and added not 
another word ; her strength had failed her. The 
internal combat between the wife and the mother 
had been too violent. Some minutes after, the 
clergyman came, preceded by the abbe de Solis, and 
the parlor was filled with the people of the house. 
When the ceremony began, Madame Claes, who had 
been lifted up by her confessor, looked at all the 
persons who surrounded her, and not seeing Bal- 
thazar, said : 

“ Where is my husband ?” 

This inquiry, in which were summed up both her 
life and her death, was pronounced in so piteous a 
tone that a cold shudder ran through the assembly. 
Spite of her great age, Martha darted from the room 
like an arrow, ran up the stairs, and knocking loudly 


i 62 


The Alchemist y or 


at the laboratory door exclaimed, in violent indigna> 
tion : 

“ Sir, madame is dying, and they are waiting for 
you to give her extreme unction !” 

“ I am coming down,” replied Balthazar. 

Lemulquinier came the moment after, saying his 
master was following him. 

Madame Claes never ceased to look at the parlor 
door, but her husband did not make his appearance 
till the ceremony was concluded. The abbe de Solis 
and the children surrounded the dying woman’s 
pillow. On seeing her husband enter, a faint color 
mounted to the cheeks of Josephine, and a few tears 
coursed down them. 

You were doubtless on the point of decomposing 
azote f she said, with an angelic sweetness that made 
all present shudder. 

“ That is done !” he cried, joyously. “ Azote con- 
tains oxygen and another substance of an impondera- 
ble nature, which is apparently the principle of 
the — 

Murmurs of horror interrupted him, and recalled 
his presence of'mind. 

“ What did they tell me ?” he said. “ Are you 
worse ? What has happened ?” 

“ This has happened, sir,” whispered the abbe de 
Solis in his ear ; “ your wife is dying, and you have 
killed her!” 

Without waiting for a reply the abbe de Solis took 
Emmanuel’s arm and retired, attended bv the 


The House of Claes. 


163 


children, to the outer court. Balthazar stood for a 
moment as if thunderstruck, looking- at his wife, and 
shedding tears. 

You are dying, and I have killed you !” he cried. 
“ What does he mean by that?” 

“ My dear,” she replied, “ I have only lived by 
your love, and you have, unknown to yourself, with- 
drawn my life from me.” 

“ Leave us,” said Claes to the children, who at 
that moment returned. “ Have I for a single instant 
ceased to love you ?” he resumed, seating himself by 
the bedside, and taking her hands and kissing them. 

“ My love, I utter no reproach. You rendered 
me happy, too happy ; I have not been able to 
support the comparison of the early days of our 
marriage, which were full, with the latter days, in 
which you have not been yourself, and which have 
been void ! The life of the heart, like physical life, 
has its stated action. For six years you have been 
dead to love, to your family, to everything which 
made us happy. I do not speak of the felicities 
which are the susteng.nce of youth, they naturally 
cease in the latter season of life ; but they leave fruits 
which nourish the soul, unbounded confidence, and 
gentle habits. Well, you have torn from me these 
treasures of our age of life ; I depart in good time ; 
we no longer lived together in any way ; you con- 
cealed both your thoughts and actions from me. 

“ How could you come to fear me ? Have I ever 
given you a word, a look, a gesture, of blame ? And 


164 


The Alchemist, or 


yet you have sold your last picture, you have sold 
even the wine in your cellar, and you are borrowing 
again upon your property, without having said a 
word to me. Oh ! I shall leave life disgusted with 
life. If you commit errors, if you blind yourself in 
the pursuit of the impossible, have I not shown you 
that there is love enough in me to find pleasure in shar- 
ing your errors, and in walking side by side with you, 
even if you led me into the paths of crime ? You have 
loved me too well ; that is my glory and my grief. 
My illness has lasted a long time, Balthazar ; it began 
the day when, in this place where I am about to 
expire, you convinced me that you were more 
wrapped up in science than in your family. Behold 
your wife dead, and your own fortune consumed ! 
Your fortune and your wife belonged to you, you 
were at liberty to dispose of them ; but the da}^ when 
I shall be no more, my fortune belongs to my chil- 
dren, and you have no right to touch it. What is 
to become of you ? Now it is my duty to tell 
you the truth ; the dying see into the future. 
Where, henceforward, will be the counterpoise to 
balance the accursed passion of which you have made 
your life? If you have sacrificed me to it, your 
children will be as nothing before you ; for I will do 
you the justice to confess that you have preferred 
me to everything. Two millions and six years of 
labor have been hurled into this gulf for nothing !” 

At these words Claes dropped his blanched head 
in his hands, and concealed his face. 


The House of Claes. 


165 


“ You never will find anything in your researches 
but shame for yourself and want for your children,” 
continued the dying woman. “You are already 
derided as Claes the alchemist ; it will soon be Claes 
the madman ! For my own part, I have faith in 
you. I believe you to be great, learned, full of 
genius ; but with the vulgar, genius closely resem- 
bles madness. Glory is the sun of the dead ; Avhile 
you live, you will be unfortunate, as all the great 
are, and you will ruin your children. I depart with- 
out having enjoyed your renown, which might have 
consoled me for the loss of happiness. Well, my 
dear Balthazar, to take the sting from death, I must 
be certain that our children will not want bread ; 
but nothing, not even you, can calm my anxiety — ” 

“ I swear,” said Claes, “ to — ” 

“ Swear not, my dear husband, that you may not 
break your oath !” she returned, interrupting him. 
“You owed us your protection, and we have been 
without it nearly seven years. Science is your life. 
A great man can have neither wife nor children. 
Go alone in your paths of want and misery ! Your 
virtues are not those of the vulgar ; you belong to 
the world, you cannot belong to either a wife or a 
family. You dry up the earth around you, like 
wide-spreading trees! For me, poor plant I I was 
not able to raise myself high enough, I expire when 
but half your term of life is run. I waited for 
to-day to tell you these horrible thoughts which I 
discovered only by the flashes of grief and despair. 


The Alchemist, 


1 66 


Spare my children ! May that word forever echo 
in your heart ! I will repeat it with my last sigh. 
Your wife is dead ! You have bereaved her slowly 
and gradually of her feelings and her pleasures. 
Alas! without the care thus involuntarily taken, 
should I have lived so long ? But these poor chil- 
dren did not abandon me I they grew up amid my 
sorrows, the mother survived. Spare, spare our 
children 1” 

“ Lemulquinier !” cried Balthazar, in a voice of 
thunder. The old valet quickly made his appear- 
ance. Go up yonder and destroy everything, 
machines, preparations, everything — do it with pre- 
caution, but break everything. I renounce science 
forever,” he said to his wife. 

“It is too late!” she murmured, looking at Lemul- 
quinier. “ Margaret !” she cried, feeling that she 
was dying. Margaret appeared upon the threshold, 
and uttered a piercing cry on beholding her mother’s 
glassy eyes. “ Margaret !” repeated the dying 
woman. 

This last exclamation contained such a strong 
appeal to her daughter, she invested it with so much 
authority, that the cry was her whole will and testa- 
ment. The family, terrified at hearing it, hurried 
into the room, and beheld Madame Claes expiring ; 
she had exhausted the last powers of her life in her 
conversation with her husband. Margaret and Bal- 
thazar, she at her pillow, he at the foot of the bed, 
stood motionless ; they could not realize the death 


The House of Claes, 


167 


of the woman whose virtues and inexhaustible ten- 
derness were known but to themselves. The father 
and daughter exchanged a glance weighty with 
thoughts ; the daughter condemned the father, the 
father already trembled at finding an instrument of 
vengeance in his daughter. 

Although the remembrances of the love with 
which his wife had filled his life returned in crowds 
to besiege his memory, and gave the last words of 
the dead a holy authority, which would always 
make him listen to its voice, Balthazar felt that his 
heart was too weak against his genius ; and then he 
heard a terrible muttering of passion, which denied 
the truth of his repentance, and made him afraid of 
himself. When his wife had departed, every one 
felt that the House of Claes had had a soul, and that 
that soul was no more. Such and so lively was the 
grief of the family, that the parlor in which the 
noble Josephine seemed yet to survive, remained 
closed ; no one had the courage to enter it. 

1 Society practices none of the virtues it demands 
of men ; it commits crimes every hour, but it com- 
mits them in words ; it stimulates to bad actions by 
pleasantry, as it degrades the beautiful by ridicule ; 
it laughs at sons who lament their fathers too long, 
it anathematizes those, who do not weep for them 
long enough ; and then it amuses itself by appraising 
the dead before they are cold. The evening when 
Madame Claes died, the friends of that lady threw 
a few flowers over her grave between two games of 


i68 


The Alchemist, or 


whist, and rendered homage to her excellent quali- 
ties while picking out their hearts or spades. Then, 
after several of those lachrymose sentences which 
form the Ba, be, bi, bo, bu of collective grief, and 
which are pronounced in the same intonation, with- 
out a whit more or less feeling, in all the cities of 
France, and at any hour, each person began to guess 
at the amount of property she had left. 

Pierquin was the first to observe to those who 
were talking of the event, that the death of the 
excellent lady was a good thing for herself, her hus- 
band made her so unhappy ; but that it was still bet- 
ter for the children, for she had never been able to 
refuse her fortune to her husband, whom she adored, 
whereas now Claes could no longer dispose of it. 
And then all set to work to estimate how much poor 
Madame Claes had left, to reckon her savings, if she 
had made any, and she probably had not ; to take an 
inventory of her jewels, to exhibit her w^ardrobe, to 
ransack her drawers, while her afflicted family were 
weeping and praying around the death-bed. 

With the rapid glance of a sw'orn appraiser, Pier- 
quin calculated that the chattels of Madame Claes, 
to use his own words, might still be retrieved, and 
Avould amount to about fifteen hundred thousand 
francs, represented either by the forest of Waignies, 
the woods of which had, in twelve years, acquired 
an enormous value — and he counted the timber-trees 
and the pollards of all ages — or by the property of 
Balthazar, who was still able to make good his 


The House of Claes, 


169 


account with his children, even if the proceeds of 
the liquidation did not acquit him with respect to 
them. Mademoiselle Claes, then, still in his slang, 
was a girl of four hundred thousand francs. “ But 
if she does not marry speedily,” he added, — “ a step 
which will emancipate her, and allow the forest of 
Waignies to be put up for sale, to liquidate the share 
of the minors, and employ it in such a manner that 
Claes cannot interfere with it, — he is a man to ruin 
his children.” 

Every one looked round through the province for 
the young man who could pretend to the hand of 
Mademoiselle Claes, but no one paid the notary the 
compliment to think him worthy of it. The notary 
himself saw reasons for rejecting every one of the 
matches proposed as quite beneath Margaret. The 
guests looked at each other with a smile, and took 
pleasure in prolonging their provincial spite. Pier- 
quin already regarded the death of Madame Claes 
as favorable to his pretensions, and, in his own mind, 
he cut up the body as best suited his interests. 

“ The good lady,” he said, as he returned home to 
go to bed, ‘‘ was as proud as a peacock, and would 
never have given me her daughter. Why should I 
not manoeuvre a little now to bring about our mar- 
riage? Claes, the father, is a man intoxicated with 
carbon, who cares no longer for his children ; if I 
were to ask him for his daughter, after having con- 
vinced Margaret of the urgency for her marrying to 
save the fortunes of her brothers and sisters, he 


The Alchemist, or 


170 


would be glad to get rid of a child who might give 
him trouble.” 

He fell asleep ruminating over the matrimonial 
charms of the contract, meditating upon the advan- 
tages the affair would secure him, and the guarantees 
for his happiness which he found in the person of 
her whose husband he constituted himself. It was 
difficult to find in the province a young lady more 
delicately beautiful, or one better brought up than 
Margaret was. Her modesty and grace were com- 
parable to those of the pretty flower which 
Emmanuel had not dared to name before her, for 
fear of disclosing the secret wishes of his heart. 
Her sentiments were exalted, her principles were 
religious, she was sure to be a faithful wife ; she not 
only flattered that vanity which every man consults 
more or less in the choice of a wife, she still further 
gratified the notary’s pride by the great considera- 
tion which the family, doubly noble, enjoyed in 
Flanders, and which her husband would share. 

The next morning, Pierquin took a few notes for a 
thousand francs each from his money-drawer, and 
offered them in a friendly spirit to Balthazar, in 
order to spare him any pecuniary annoyances whilst 
he was plunged in grief ; touched with which deli- 
cate attention, Balthazar would, doubtless, praise the 
notary’s heart and person to his daughter. But no 
such thing ensued. M. Claes and his daughter 
looked upon the matter in a very simple light, and 
their sufferings were too exclusive to allow them to 


The House of Claes. 


71 


bestow a thought upon Pierquin. In fact, Balthazar’s 
despair was so deep, that persons disposed to blame 
his conduct pardoned him, less in the name of the 
science which might have excused him, than in favor 
of his regrets, though they did not repair the injury. 
The world contents itself with grimace and outward 
show, it pays itself with what it gives in payment, 
without ascertaining the alloy ; true grief is a spec- 
tacle to society, a sort of enjoyment which disposes 
it to absolve everything and everybody, even a 
criminal ; in its avidity for emotions it acquits, with- 
out discernment, both the one who makes it laugh, 
and him who makes it weep, without asking them 
for any account of the means employed. 

Margaret had accomplished her nineteenth year 
when her father placed the government of the family 
in her hands. Her authority was piously acknowl- 
edged by her sister and her two brothers, to whom, 
during the last moments of her life, Madame Claes 
had recommended obedience to their elder sister. 
Mourning set off her fair, fresh complexion, as sorrow 
gave a strong relief to her gentle, patient character. 
From the very outset she was prodigal of proofs of 
that feminine courage, of that constant serenity 
which the angels must have who are charged to 
disseminate peace, by touching the hearts of suf- 
ferers with their green palm-leaves. 

Though she accustomed herself by the premature 
understanding of her duties, to conceal her grief, it 
was none the dess lively on that account ; the calm- 


The Alchemist, or 


1 72 

ness of her exterior was not in harmony with the 
depth of her sensations, and she was destined to 
know at an early period those terrible explosions of 
feeling which the heart is not always able to repress ; 
her father would always hold her trammeled 
between the generosity natural to the young, and 
the voice of an imperious necessity. The calcula- 
tions in which she was entangled, the very day after 
the death of her mother, brought her in conflict with 
the struggles of life, at the moment when girls 
should only be acquainted with its pleasures. A 
frightful education of suffering, this, and one which 
the angels on earth have never been spared ! 

^ The love which is based upon money and vanity 
is the most obstinate of all passions. Pierquin was 
determined not to delay his attack upon the heiress. 
A few days after the family went into mourning, he 
sought an opportunity of speaking to Margaret, and 
commenced operations with a skill which might per- 
haps have worn upon her ; but love had endowed 
her soul with a clairvoyance which prevented her 
from being deluded by appearances which were all 
the more favorable for sentimental deceit, from the 
circumstance that Pierquin displayed the kindness 
that really did belong to him — that of the notary 
who believes himself a lover because he is saving 
the loved one’s goods. Strong in his doubtful rela- 
tionship, in his constant habit of managing the 
affairs and sharing the secrets of this family, certain 
of the esteem and friendship of the father, his inter- 


The House of Claes. 


173 


ests furthered by the carelessness of a savant who 
had no other plans for his daughter’s establishment, 
and not supposing that Margaret ^ould have any 
predilection, he left her to form an opinion of a suit 
which only pretended to passion in alliance with 
calculations the most odious to young minds, and 
which he was unable to conceal. It was he who 
showed himself short-sighted, it was she who 
resorted to dissimulation, precisely because he 
thought he was acting against a girl without defence, 
and was not acquainted with the privileges of weak- 
ness. 

“ My dear cousin,” he said to Margaret, with 
whom he was walking in the garden, “ you know my 
heart, and you know how much I am disposed to 
respect the painful feelings which affect you at this 
moment. I am too sensitive to be a notary ; I only 
live by the affections, and 1 am obliged to be con- 
stantly occupied with the moneyed interests of 
others, when I could wish to give myself up to the 
sweet emotions which constitute a happy life ; there- 
fore it grieves me much to be compelled to speak 
to you of matters that jar with the state of your 
mind ; but it must be done. I have thought a great 
deal about you within the last few days. I have 
just discovered that, by a singular fatality, the for- 
tune of your sister and your brothers, even your 
own, are in danger. Do you wish to save your 
family from complete ruin ?” 


174 


The Alchemist, or 


“ What must I do?” she asked, half-frightened at 
the notary’s words. 

“Marry,” replied Pierquin. 

“ I will not marry !” she cried. 

“ You will marry,” rejoined the notary, “ when you 
have reflected on the critical situation in which you 
are placed.” 

“ How can my marriage save — ” 

“ That is exactly what I wanted to bring you to, 
cousin,” said he, interrupting her. “ Marriage 
emancipates.” 

“ Why should I be emancipated ?” said Margaret. 

“To put you in possession, my dear little cousin,” 
said the notary with an air of triumph. “ In that 
state of things, you take your share of your mother’s 
property. To give it to you it must be liquidated, 
and to liquidate it the forest of the Waignies must 
be put up for sale. That granted, all the property 
left by your mother will be capitalized, and your 
father will be compelled, as guardian, so to invest 
the fortunes of your brothers and sister that Chem- 
istry can never again touch them.” 

“ Supposing the contrary, what' would happen?” 
Margaret asked. 

“ Why, your father will administer your property ; 
and if he sets to work again to try to make gold, he 
may perhaps sell the forest of Waignies, and leave 
you all as naked as the infant Saint John. The for- 
est of Waignies is worth, at this moment, nearly 
fourteen hundred thousand francs. If your father 


The House of Claes. 


175 


should cut it down to-morrow, your thirteen hun- 
dred acres of bare ground would not be worth three 
hundred thousand francs. Is it not better to avoid 
this almost certain danger by bringing about at once 
the necessity for dividing the wood by your eman- 
cipation? You will thus save all the crops of wood 
which your father might sell, to your prejudice. 
At this moment, while Chemistry is asleep, he will 
necessarily invest the proceeds of the liquidation in 
the public funds. The funds are at fifty-nine; so 
that the dear children will have an income of nearly 
five thousand francs for fifty thousand francs ; and 
as capital belonging to minors cannot be disposed 
of, your brothers and sister will find their fortunes 
doubled at their majority. Whilst otherwise — good 
lord ! — well ! Besides, your father has impaired 
your mother’s property, and we shall know what the 
deficiency is by the inventory. If he is in arrears, 
you will take a mortgage on his property, .and may 
yet save something.” 

For shame !” said Margaret, “ that would be 
insulting my father. My mother’s last words were 
not pronounced so long ago that I cannot remem- 
ber them. My father is incapable of plundering his 
children,” she said, while tears of grief burst from 
her eyes. ‘Wou do not know him, M. Pierquin.’* 

But if your father, my dear cousin, goes to work 
at chemistry again, he — ” 

‘‘We should be ruined, should we not?" 

“ Oh, yes, completely ruined ! Believe me. Mar- 


The Alchemist, or 


1 76 

garet/’ he said, taking her hand, and pressing it to 
his heart, “ I should be wanting in my duty if I did 
not insist. Your interest alone — ” 

“Sir,” said Margaret, coldly, withdrawing her 
hand, “ the real interest of my family requires me 
not to marry. My mother thought so.” 

“ Cousin ! cousin !” he cried, with the earnestness 
of a money-worshiper who sees himself losing a 
fortune, “ you are committing suicide ! you are cast- 
ing your inheritance from your mother upon the 
waters ! No matter ! I will have zeal enough to 
match the exalted friendship I bear you. You do 
not know how much I love you ; I have adored 
you since the last ball your father gave. Y ou were 
perfectly delicious! You may trust to the voice of 
the heart, when it speaks of worldly interest, my 
dear Margaret.” 

A pause ensued. 

“Yes, we will call a family council, and we will 
emancipate you without consulting you.” 

“ But what do you mean by being emancipated?” 

“To possess and enjoy your rights.” 

“ If I can be emancipated without marrying, why 
do you wish me to marry? And who, pray?” 

Pierquin endeavored to look tenderly at his 
cousin, but this expression agreed so ill with the 
rigidity of his eyes, which were accustomed to 
speak of little but money, that Margaret fancied she 
could read calculation in his improvised affection. 

“ Why, you would marry the person most agree- 


The House of Claes, 


177 


able to you — in the city,” he replied. “ A husband 
is indispensable to you, even in a business point of 
view. You will be left alone with your father. 
When so left, will you be able to resist him ?” 

‘‘ Yes, sir, I shall know how to defend my brothers 
and my sister, when time and circumstances render 
it necessary.” 

The deuce take the girl !” said Pierquin to him- 
self ; he then added, aloud: No, no ! you will not 

resist him !” 

“We will say no more upon the subject, sir,” she 
returned. 

“ Adieu, cousin ; I will endeavor to serve you, in 
spite of yourself, and will prove how much I love 
you, by protecting you, without your consent, 
against a misfortune which every one in the city 
foresees.” 

“ I thank you for the interest you bear me ; but I 
implore you to propose nothing, to undertake noth- 
ing, that may cause my father the least annoyance.” 

Margaret remained pensive after Pierquin’s depart- 
ure. She contrasted his metallic voice, his manners, 
which exhibited a suppleness like that of a steel 
spring, and his looks, which announced servility rather 
than affection, with the melodiously mute poetry in 
which the sentiments of Emmanuel were clothed. 
Whatever we may do, whatever we may say, there 
is an admirable magnetism the effects of which can 
never deceive. The sound of the voice, the gaze, the 
passionate gestures, of the man truly in love may be 


178 


The Alchemist^ or 


imitated ; a young girl may be deceived by a skilful 
actor ; but to succeed, must he not have the field to 
himself? If that young girl has near her a heart 
vibrating in unison with her own, will she not soon 
recognize the language of true love ? 

Emmanuel was at that moment, like Margaret, 
under the influence of the clouds which, since their 
first meeting, had formed a gloomy atmosphere over 
their heads, and deprived them of the sight of the 
clear blue heaven of love. He entertained for the 
chosen of his heart that species of idolatry which 
the absence of hope renders so sweet and so mysteri- 
ous in its pious manifestations. Socially placed too 
far from Mademoiselle Claes by his want of fortune, 
and having nothing but a noble name to offer her, he 
saw no chance of being accepted as her husband. 
He had waited for some little encouragement, which 
Margaret had declined giving before the failing 
eyes of a dying mother. 

Equally pure, they had never breathed a single 
word of love to each other. Their joys were the 
egotistical joys which the unhappy are forced to 
taste and enjoy by themselves. They had trembled 
separately, although agitated by a ray emanating 
from the same hope. They appeared to be afraid of 
themselves at already feeling they were so entirely 
each other’s. Thus Emmanuel trembled at touch- 
ing with his lips the hand of the sovereign for whom 
he had made a sanctuary in his heart. But though 
they had not allowed themselves any of the trifling. 


The House of Claes. 


179 


yet immense, the innocent, yet serious, evidences 
which the most timid lovers indulge in, they were, 
nevertheless, so firmly lodged in each other’s hearts, 
that both were ready to make the greatest sacrifices 
as the only pleasures they could enjoy. 

Since the death of Madame Claes, their secret 
love had been stifled by the crape of mourning. 
From brown, the hues of the sphere in which they 
lived had become black, and the light was extin- 
guished in tears. Margaret’s reserve well-nigh 
became coldness, for she had to keep the vow 
exacted by her mother ; and becoming freer than she 
had been, she became more rigid. Emmanuel had 
espoused the grief of his beloved, feeling that the 
least expression, the most simple requirement of 
love, would be an offence against the laws of the 
heart. This deep love, therefore, was more con- 
cealed than it had ever been. These two tender 
souls still emitted the same sound ; but, separated by 
sorrow, as they had been by the timidity of youth 
and the respect due to the sufferings of the dying, 
they still confined themselves to the magnificent 
language of the eyes, to the mute eloquence of 
devotion, to an eternal cohesion — the sublime har- 
monies of youth, the first steps of love in its infancy. 

Emmanuel came every morning to inquire after 
the health of Claes and Margaret ; but he never went 
as far as the breakfast-room, unless he brought a 
letter from Gabriel, or unless Balthazar pressed him 
to walk in. His first glance at the young girl assured 


i8o 


The Alchemist, or 


her of a thousand sympathetic thoughts ; he suffered 
from the silence which the proprieties imposed upon 
him — he had not quitted her — he shared her sor- 
rows; in short, he shed the dew of his tears upon 
the heart of his beloved by a look un vitiated by any 
selfish thought. This kind young man lived so com- 
pletely in the present, he clung so closely to the, 
happiness he thought so fugitive, that Margaret 
sometimes reproached herself for not generously 
extending her hand to him and saying, “ Let us be 
friends !” 

Pierquin continued his importunities with that 
obstinacy which is the unreflecting patience of fools. 
He judged Margaret by the- ordinary rules employed 
by the multitude in forming estimates of women. 
He believed that the words marriage, liberty, fortune, 
which he had dropped in her ear, would germinate 
in her mind, and there bloom into a desire of which 
he could take advantage ; and he imagined that her 
coldness was dissimulation. But although he beset 
her with devotion and gallant attentions, he ill con- 
cealed the despotic manners of a man accustomed to 
decide the most important questions relative to 
family affairs. He consolingly repeated the com- 
monplaces familiar to people of his profession, which 
glide like a snail over one’s affliction, leaving a track 
of unfeeling words which disfigure its sanctity. His 
affection was so much wheedling. He left his feigned 
melancholy at the door, when he put on his over- 
shoes and took his umbrella. He employed the 


The Hotise of Claes, 


i8i 


tone which his long familiarity with the family autho- 
rized him to assume, as an instrument to establish 
himself more firmly in the bosom of the family, and 
decide Margaret upon forjuing a marriage pro- 
claimed beforehand throughout the city. 

A true, devoted, respectful love, therefore, offered 
a striking contrast with an egotistical, calculating 
love. Everything was homogeneous in these two 
men. The one feigned a passion, and profited by 
the least advantages to bring about his marriage with 
Margaret ; the other concealed his love, and trem- 
bled at the idea of manifesting the slightest symptom 
of his devotion. Some time after the death of her 
mother, and on the same day, Margaret had an 
opportunity of comparing the only two young men 
she was in a situation to judge. Hitherto, the soli- 
tude to which she had been condemned had not 
allowed her to see much company, and her situation 
denied access to persons likely to think of asking her 
in marriage. One day, after breakfast, on the first 
fine morning of the month of April, Emmanuel came 
in at the moment Claes was going out. Balthazar 
was so much affected by the forlorn appearance of 
the house, that he generally went and walked upon 
the ramparts during a considerable portion of the 
day. Emmanuel was about to follow Balthazar ; he 
hesitated, appeared to summon up his resolution, 
looked at Margaret, and remained. Margaret per- 
ceived that the young professor wished to speak to 
her, and proposed to him to come into the garden. 


i 82 


The Alchemist, or 


She sent her sister to Martha, who was at work in 
the ante-chamber on the first story ; she then seated 
herself upon a bench where she could be seen by her 
sister and the duenna. 

“ M. Claes is as much absorbed by his grief as he 
was by his scientific researches,” said the young man, 
seeing Balthazar walking slowly along the court. 
“ Everybody in the city pities him ; he goes about 
like a man no longer in possession of his ideas ; he 
stops without an object, and looks without seeing.” 

“ Every sorrow has its peculiar mode of expres- 
sion,” said Margaret, restraining her tears. “ What 
do you wish to say to me ?” she resumed, after a 
pause, with chilling dignity. 

Mademoiselle,” replied Emmanuel, in an agitated 
voice, “ have I the right to speak to you as I am 
about to do? See nothing in it, I conjure you, but 
my desire to be useful to you, and let me believe 
that a professor may interest himself in the fate of 
his pupils, even to being anxious regarding their 
future lives. Your brother Gabriel is more than 
fifteen years old. He is in the second class, and it is 
certainly time that his studies should be directed 
with reference to the career he is to follow. Your 
father should decide this question ; but if he pays no 
attention to it, will it not be a misfortune for Gabriel ? 
Would it not also be very mortifying to your father, 
if you were to remark that he does not pay attention 
to his son? In such a conjuncture, should you not 
consult your brother as to his tastes, and lead him to 


The House of Claes. 183 

choose a career for himself, so that, if, at a later 
period, his father wishes him to be a magistrate, a 
business man, or a soldier, Gabriel may already have 
the necessary special knowledge. I cannot believe 
that either you or M. Claes would wish him to 
remain idle.” 

“Oh, no. Monsieur Emmanuel,” said Margaret, “ 1 
thank you, you are quite right. When my mother 
required us to make lace, and taught us with so 
much care to draw, to sew, to embroider, to play 
upon the piano, she often said that we did not know 
what might happen to us in life. Gabriel ought to 
have a personal value and a complete education. 
But what is the most suitable career for a man ?” 

“ Mademoiselle,” said Emmanuel, trembling with 
happiness, “ Gabriel belongs to the class which 
shows the most aptitude for mathematics ; if he 
were to enter the Polytechnic School, I think he 
would acquire attainments that would be useful to 
him in any career ; on leaving it, he would be in a 
position to choose the profession for which he felt 
the strongest inclination. Without having up to 
that period, in any way prejudiced his future pros- 
pects, you will have gained time. Men graduating 
with honor at that school are well received every- 
where. It has furnished ministers, diplomatists, 
savants, engineers, generals, sailors, magistrates, 
manufacturers and bankers. There is nothing, there- 
fore, extraordinary in the fact of a young man, rich 
and of good family, studying with the view of being 


184 


The Alchemist, or 


admitted to it. If Gabriel should decide to do so, 
I would ask you — If I did, would you consent? 
Say yes !” 

“ What is it?” 

“To be his private tutor,” he replied, trembling. 

Margaret looked at M. de Solis, took his hand, 
and said: 

“ Yes.” She paused, and then added, in an agitated 
voice : “ How truly I appreciate the delicacy which 

prompts you to offer precisely what I may accept 
from you ! From what you have said, I see you 
have thoughts of us. I thank 3^ou.” 

Although these words were very simply spoken, 
Emmanuel turned away his head to conceal the tears 
which the pleasure of being agreeable to Margaret 
brought to his eyes. 

“ I will bring them both to you,” he said, when he 
had somewhat recovered himself ; “ to-morrow is a 
holiday.” 

He rose, bowed to Margaret, who followed him ; 
and when in the court he saw her still at the door of 
the dining-room, from whence she gave him a 
friendly parting nod. 

After dinner the notary came to visit M. Claes, 
and took his seat in the garden, between his cousin 
and Margaret, precisely on the bench where Emman- 
uel had sat. 

“ My dear cousin,” he said, “ I have come this even- 
ing to talk to you on business. Forty-three days 
have passed since your wife’s decease.” 


The House of Claes, 


185 


I have not counted them,” said Balthazar, wip- 
ing away a tear, which the legal word decease sum- 
moned to his eye. 

“ Oh, sir,” said Margaret, looking at the notary, 

how can you — ” 

“ But, my fair cousin, we notaries are forced to 
reckon the delays which are fixed by law. You and 
your co-heirs are particularly concerned. M. Claes 
has none but minor children, and he is bound to 
'make an inventory within the forty-five days which 
follow the decease of his wife, in order to ascertain 
the value of the common property. Ought you not 
to know whether this common property is good or 
the contrary, that you may either accept it, or sim- 
ply claim your rights as minors ?” 

Margaret rose. 

* Remain where you are, cousin,” said Pierquin ; 
“ these matters concern you — you and your father. 
You know , how I sympathize with you in your sor- 
rows; but I must draw your attention to-day to 
these details, without which you might all of you be 
very unpleasantly situated. I am only doing my 
duty as the family notary.” 

“ He is right,” said Claes. 

“ The delay expires in two days,” resumed Pier- 
quin ; I must, therefore, proceed to-morrow to 
open the inventory, if it is only to put off the pay- 
ment of the inheritance tax, which the Exchequer 
demands. The Exchequer has no heart, it has no 
respect for feelings ; it claps its claws on us at one 


86 


The Alchemisty or 


time as at another. Every day, then, from ten till 
four, my clerk and I will be here, with the govern- 
ment appraiser, Monsieur Raparlier. When we 
have finished in the city, we will go to the country. 
With regard to the forest of Waignies, we will talk 
about that presently. This being disposed of, let us 
pass to another point. We have a family council to 
convoke for the purpose of appointing a deputy- 
guardian. M. Conyncks, of Bruges, is your nearest 
relation, at present ; but he has become a Belgian. 
You ought to write to him, cousin, on the subject; 
you could learn whether the worthy man has any 
inclination to fix his residence in France, where he 
possesses a fine property, and you might thus pre- 
vail upon him to come with his daughter and live in 
French Flanders. If he refuses, I will see about 
composing the council according to the degrees of 
relationship.” 

“Of what use is an inventory?” asked Margaret. 

“To ascertain rights and values, the assets and the 
debts. When the account is clearly made out, the 
family council takes, for the benefit of the minors, 
the course it judges — ” 

“ Pierquin,” said Claes, rising from the bench, 
“ proceed in any way you think necessary for the 
preservation of the rights of my children ; but let us 
avoid the sorrow of selling anything that belonged 
to my beloved — ” 

He could not finish ; but he spoke these words 


The House of Claes. 


187 


with so noble an air, and in so feeling a tone, that 
Margaret took his hand and kissed it. 

“To-morrow, then,” said Pierquin. 

“ Come to breakfast,” said Claes ; and then, appear- 
ing to recollect himself, he added : “ By my mar- 
riage-contract, which was made according to the 
customs of Hainault, my wife was exempted from 
making an inventory, to avoid tormenting her, and 
I, most probably, am not bound to make one either.” 

“ Oh, how fortunate !” exclaimed Margaret, “ it 
would have been so painful to us !” 

“ W ell, we will examine your contract to-morrow,” 
replied the notary, with slight symptoms of con- 
fusion. 

“ Then you are not acquainted with it ?” said Mar- 
garet. 

This observation interrupted the conversation. 
The notary found himself too much embarrassed to 
resume it after his cousin’s question. 

“The devil is mixed up in this business,” said he 
to himself in the court. “ This absent man recovers 
his memory just in time to prevent our taking pre- 
cautions against him. His children will be plun- 
dered as sure as two and two make four. To think 
of talking business to sentimental girls of nineteen ! 
I have racked my brain to save the property of these 
children, by proceeding regularly, and having an 
understanding with the worthy Conyncks, and see 
what is the result ! I am losing ground with Mar- 
garet, who will ask her father why I wanted to make 


i88 


The Alchemist, or 


an inventory which she thinks useless; and M. Claes 
will answer that notaries have a mania for deeds and 
documents, and that we are notaries a good deal 
more than we are relations, cousins, or friends, — in 
short, he’ll tell her a pack of nonsense!” 

He shut the door with a bang, cursing all clients 
who ruin themselves out of sensibility. 

Balthazar was right; no inventory was taken. 
Nothing, therefore, was decided as to the situation in 
which the father was placed with regard to his 
children. Several months passed away without any 
change in Claes’ house. Gabriel, whose studies were 
skilfully directed by Emmanuel, who had made him- 
self his preceptor, worked with steady application ; 
he learned the modern languages, and prepared him- 
self to pass the examination necessary to enter the 
Polytechnic School. Margaret and Felicie lived in 
absolute seclusion, going, nevertheless, for the sake 
of economy, to pass the fine season in their father’s 
country-house. 

M. Claes busied himself with his affairs, paid his 
debts by borrowing a considerable sum upon his 
property, and visited the forest of Waignies. 
Towards the middle of the year 1817, his sorrow, 
which had been gradually assuaged, left him alone 
and without defence against the monotony of the life 
he led, and which weighed heavily upon him. He 
struggled at first courageously against science, 
which revived insensibly, and would not allow him- 
self to think of chemistry. And then he did think 


The House of Claes. 


189 


of it. He was determined not to engage in it 
actively, but to busy himself with it theoretically. 
This constant study caused his passion to surge up 
again till it became once more tyrannical. He dis- 
cussed within himself whether he had promised not 
to continue his researches, and remembered that his 
wife would not let him take an oath. Even if he had 
promised himself not to pursue the solution of his 
problem, might he not be allowed to change his 
mind when he saw a clear prospect of success? He 
was already fifty-nine years old ; at that age, the idea 
which domineered over him acquired the harsh 
obstinacy by which monomanias always commence. 
Circumstances still further conspired against his 
wavering loyalty. 

The peace which Europe enjoyed had permitted 
the circulation of the discoveries and scientific ideas 
acquired during the war by the learned of different 
countries, between whom there had existed no such 
relations for nearly twenty years. Science had made 
great strides. Claes found that the progress of 
chemistry was directed, unknown to chemists, 
towards the object of his researches. People 
addicted to the higher walks of science thought, as 
he did, that light, heat, electricity, galvanism and 
magnetism, were the different effects of one same 
cause ; that the difference which existed between 
bodies till then deemed simple, must be produced 
by differing proportions of an unknown principle. 
The fear that anybody else should discover the 


The Alchemist, or 


190 


reduction of metals and the constituent principle of 
electricity, two discoveries which led up to the solu- 
tion of the chemical Absolute, augmented what the 
inhabitants of Douay termed a madness, and exalted 
his desires to a paroxysm — one which persons pas- 
sionately addicted to the sciences, or those who have 
experienced the tyranny of particular ideas, will 
easily conceive. 

Thus Balthazar was carried away by a passion all 
the more violent for having slept for a time. Mar- 
garet, who watched the fluctuations of mind through 
which her father passed, re-opened the parlor. By 
residing in it she revived the painful memories of 
the death of her mother, and, in fact, succeeded in 
re-awakening her father’s regrets, and retarding for 
a time his fall into the gulf into which he must never- 
theless sink. She resolved to go into company, and 
forced Balthazar to seek distractions in that direc- 
tion. Several proposals were made for her, and 
engaged Claes’ attention, though Margaret posi- 
tively declared she would not marry before she was 
twenty-five. In spite of the efforts of his daughter, 
in spite of violent internal struggles, Balthazar 
secretly resumed his labors at the beginning of win- 
ter. It was difficult to conceal such occupations 
from inquisitive women. One day Martha said to 
Margaret, while dressing her: 

“Mademoiselle, we are lost! That monster, Mul- 
quinier, who must be the devil in disguise, for I have 
never seen him make the sign of the cross, has gone 


The House of Claes. 


191 


up into the garret once more. There is your father 
off for the infernal regions again ! Pray God he does 
not kill you, as he did your poor dear mother!” 

“ It is not possible 1” said Margaret. 

“ Come and see the proof of how they are carrying 
on.” 

Mademoiselle Claes ran to the window, and per- 
ceived, in fact, a slight smoke ascending from the 
chimney of the laboratory. 

“ I am twenty-one in a few months,” she said, 
and can oppose the dissipation of our fortune.” 

In thus giving way to his passion, Balthazar neces- 
sarily had less respect for the interests of his chil- 
dren than he had had for his wife. The barriers were 
less lofty, his conscience was freer, and his passion 
became stronger. Thus he pursued his career of 
glory, labor, hope and want, with the fury of a man 
fully convinced he was right. Certain of the result, 
he worked night and day, with a vehemence that 
alarmed his daughters, who were ignorant how little 
a man is injured by the labor he delights in. 

As soon as her father had recommenced his experi- 
ments, Margaret retrenched all the superfluities of 
their table, and practiced a parsimony worthy of a 
miser, in which she was ably seconded by Felicie 
and Martha. Claes took no notice of this reform, 
which reduced his living to the strict necessaries of 
of life. In the first place he took no breakfast, then 
he descended from his laboratory at the very last 
moment to dinner, and ended by going to bed, after 


192 


The Alchemist, or 


remaining- a few hours in the parlor with his daugh- 
ters, without speaking a word. When he retired, 
they wished him good-night, and he mechanically - 
allowed them to kiss him on both cheeks. Such 
conduct would have led to the greatest domestic 
misfortunes if Margaret had not been prepared to 
exercise the authority of a mother, and forearmed 
by a secret passion against the evils of such liberty. 

Pierquin had ceased to visit his cousins, judging 
that they were on the high road to ruin. Baltha- 
zar’s rural property, which produced an income of 
sixteen thousand francs, and was worth about six 
hundred thousand francs, was already saddled with 
a mortgage of three hundred thousand francs. 
Before resuming his chemical researches, Claes had 
borrowed a considerable sum ; his income but just 
sufficed to pay the interest ; but as, with the impru- 
dence of men devoted to one idea, he abandoned his 
income to Margaret for household expenses, the 
notary calculated that in three years all his resources 
would be exhausted and that the legal gentleman 
would then consume the little that Balthazar had 
spared. Margaret’s coldness had brought Pierquin 
to a state of almost hostile indifference. To give 
himself the right to refuse the hand of his cousin, if 
she became poor, he would say, with affected com- 
passion, when speaking of the Claeses, “ These poor 
people are ruined. I have done all I could to save 
them ; but Mademoiselle Claes declined all the 


The House of Claes. 


193 


resources of legal ingenuity which might have pre- 
served them from want.” 

Appointed principal of the college of Douay, 
through the instrumentality of his uncle, Emmanuel, 
whose great merit had made him worthy of the post, 
came every evening to visit the two young girls, 
who summoned the duenna to the parlor as soon as 
their father had gone to bed. Young de Solis’ 
gentle rap upon the knocker never failed. For three 
months past, encouraged by the delicate, mute grati- 
tude with which Margaret accepted his friendly 
offices, he had become himself in her presence. The 
rays of his mind, pure as a diamond, shone without 
a cloud ; and Margaret was able to appreciate its 
strength and duration by perceiving how inexhausti- 
ble was its source. She admired the flowers of his 
soul as they blossomed one by one, after having 
breathed their perfume beforehand. Every day 
Emmanuel gratified one more of Margaret’s hopes, 
and kindled, in the enchanted regions of love, new 
lights to drive away the clouds, restore serenity to 
the heavens, and give color to the abundant riches 
till then buried in the shade. 

Being thus more at his ease, Emmanuel was at 
liberty to display the fascinations of his heart, hith- 
erto cautiously concealed — the expansive gaiety of 
youth, the simplicity which belongs to a life of devo- 
tion to study, and the treasures of a delicate mind 
which the world had not contaminated, all the inno- 
cent joyousness which so well becomes the age of 


194 


The Alchemisty or 


love. His mind and Margaret’s understood 'each 
other better ; they went together to the bottom of 
their hearts, and there discovered the same thoughts 
— pearls of the same clearness, pleasant, sweet, fresh 
harmonies, like those that wait beneath the sea, and, 
as they say, fascinate the divers! They came to 
understand each other by those exchanges of 
thought, by that alternating curiosity, which, with 
both of them, assumed the most delightful forms of 
sentiment. This was without false shame, but not 
without some mutual coquetry. 

The two hours which Emmanuel spent every even- 
ing with the girls and Martha, enabled Margaret to 
endure the life of anguish and resignation upon 
which she had entered. Her love, thus ingenuously 
progressive, was her support. Emmanuel infused 
into his evidences of affection that natural grace 
which is so seductive, that mild yet brilliant wit 
which gives life to the uniformity of sentiment, as 
the facets of a precious stone relieve its monotony by 
bringing all its fires into play ; delicious little ways, 
the secret of which dwells in loving hearts alone, 
and which make women faithful to the artistic hand 
which reproduces the same form with ever varying 
expression, faithful to the voice which never repeats 
a sentence without refreshing it with new modula- 
tions. Love is not only a sentiment, it is likewise 
an art. The simplest word, a precaution, a mere 
nothing, will reveal to a woman the great and sub- 
lime artist, who may touch her heart without stain- 


The House of Claes. 


195 


ing it. The further Emmanuel went, the more 
charming became the expressions of his love. 

“ I am beforehand with Pierquin,” he said, one 
evening, “ he is coming to tell you a piece of bad 
news, I prefer informing you of it myself. Your 
father h^ sold your forest to speculators, who have 
resold it in shares ; the trees are already cut down, 
all the timber is carried away. M. Claes has 
received three hundred thousand francs down, with 
which he has paid his debts in Paris, and to dis- 
charge them entirely, he has even been obliged to 
make an assignment of a hundred thousand francs 
out of the three hundred thousand which the pur- 
chasers have still to pay." 

At this moment Pierquin came in. 

“ Well, my dear cousin," said he, “ here you are, 
ruined ! I told you it would be so ; but you would 
not listen to me. Your father has a good appetite ; 
he has gulped your forest down at the first mouth- 
ful. Your deputy-guardian, M. Conyncks, is at 
Amsterdam, where he is winding up his affairs, and 
Claes has seized the opportunity to strike his blow. 
This is not right. I have just written to the worthy 
Conyncks, but by the time he arrives the stew will 
be complete. You will be obliged to bring an 
action against your father ; the suit will not be a 
long one, but it will be a disgraceful one, and M. 
Conyncks must commence it ; the law requires it. 
This is the result of your obstinacy. Don’t you see 


9 


196 


The Alchemist, or 


now how prudent I was, and how truly devoted to 
your interests ?” 

‘‘I bring you some good news, mademoiselle,” 
said young de Solis, in his gentle tones ; “ Gabriel 
is admitted to the Polytechnic School. The difficul- 
ties in the way of his matriculation are renKOved.” 

Margaret thanked her friend with a smile, and 
said, “ My savings were to some purpose ! Martha, 
we must set to work to-morrow upon Gabriel’s out- 
fit. My poor Felicie, we shall have plenty to do,” 
said she, kissing her sister’s brow. 

“ He will come home to-morrow for ten days ; he 
must be in Paris by the 15th of November.” 

“My cousin Gabriel acts prudently,” said the 
notary, eyeing the young principal from head to 
foot, “he will need to make a fortune. But, my 
dear cousin, the honor of the family is at stake ; will 
you listen to me this time ?” 

“ No,” said she, “ if the subject is still marriage.” 

“ What do you mean to do, then?” 

“ I, cousin ? Nothing.” 

“ But you are of age.” 

“ I shall be in a few days. Have you,” she con- 
tinued, “ a course of action to propose that will con- 
ciliate our interests and what we owe to our father, 
with the honor of the family?” 

“ Cousin^ we can do nothing without your uncle. 
That being understood, I will come again when he 
returns.” 

“ Adieu, sir,” said Margaret. 


The House of Claes. 


197 


“ The poorer she is, the more prudish she groAvs,’’ 
thought the notary. “ Adieu, mademoiselle,” he 
said, aloud. “ Sir Principal, I am your humble 
servant.” And he left the room without paying the 
least attention to Felicie or Martha. 

“ For the last two days, I have been studying the 
code, and I have consulted an old lawer, a friend of 
my uncle,” said Emmanuel, in an agitated voice. 
“ I will set out to-morrow, if you so authorize me, 
for Amsterdam. Listen to me, dear Margaret.” 

He pronounced this word for the first time; she 
thanked him for it with moistened eyes, by a smile 
and an inclination of the head. He stopped and 
pointed to Felicie and Martha. 

“ Speak before my sister,” said Margaret, she 
has no need of this discussion to teach her resigna- 
tion to a life of privations and labor ; she is so gentle 
and so courageous! But she ought to know how 
necessary courage is to us.” 

The sisters clasped hands and kissed each other, as 
if to exchange a mutual pledge of union in the face 
of misfortune. 

“ Leave us, Martha.” 

Dear Margaret,” resumed Emmanuel, allowing 
the happiness he felt at winning this small privilege 
of affection to be perceptible in the inflexion of his 
voice, “ I have obtained the names and the residence 
of the purchasers who owe the renjaining two hun- 
dred thousand francs purchase-money of the wood 
that has been cut down. To-morrow, with your 


The Alchemist, or 


198 

permission, a solicitor, acting in the name of M. 
Conyncks, who will not disavow him, will place a 
protest in their hands. In six days your great-uncle 
will be back, he will call a family council, and have 
Gabriel emancipated, he being now eighteen years 
old. You and your brother being authorized to 
exercise your rights, you will demand your share 
of the price of the wood. M. Claes cannot refuse 
you the two hundred thousand francs stopped by 
the protest ; as to the other hundred thousand also 
due to you, you will obtain a bond and mortgage 
upon the house you inhabit. M. Conyncks will 
demand a bail-bond for the three hundred thousand 
francs which constitute the share of Mademoiselle 
Felicie and Jean. In this situation, your father will 
be forced to mortgage his property in the plain of 
Orchies, though it is already encumbered to the 
extent of three hundred thousand francs. The law 
gives a retroactive priority to mortgages entered in 
behalf of minors. Everything will thus be safe. 
M. Claes will henceforward have his hands tied ; 
your lands are inalienable ; he will no longer be able 
to borrow anything upon his own, which are pledged 
for more than their value. The affair will have been 
managed within the family, without scandal, with- 
out recourse to law. Your father will be forced to 
go on with his researches prudently, if not to dis- 
continue them entirely.” 

“Yes,” said Margaret, “ but where will our income 
be? The hundred thousand francs mortgage upon 


The House of Claes. 


199 


this house will bring us nothing, as we dwell in it. 
The product of my father’s property in the plain of 
Orchies will pay the interest of the three hundred 
thousand francs due to strangers. What shall we 
have to live on?” 

“ In the first place,” said Emmanuel, “by investing 
the fifty thousand francs of Gabriel’s share in the 
public funds, you will have, according to present 
rates, more than four thousand francs interest, which 
will suffice for his board and tuition in Paris. 
Gabriel cannot dispose of the sum the house of his 
father is mortgaged for, nor of the capital of his own 
income ; so you need not fear his dissipating a penny, 
and you will have one responsibility the less. 
Besides, have you not a hundred and fifty thousand 
francs of your own?” 

“ My father will ask me for them,” she said, in an 
accent of terror, “ and I shall not be able to refuse 
him.” 

“Well, dear Margaret, you yet may save them, by 
putting them out of your power. Invest them in 
government funds, in the name of your brother. 
The sum will yield you an income of twelve or thir- 
teen thousand francs, upon which you can live. 
Emancipated minors being unable to alienate any- 
thing without the consent of a family council, you 
will thus gain three years tranquillity. By that time, 
your father will have solved his problem, or, what is 
more likely, will have abandoned it; Gabriel, then 
of age, will restore you the capital invested in his 


200 


The Alchemist, or 


name, so that you may settle the account among the 
four.” 

Margaret asked for further explanations of certain 
legal matters which she could not comprehend at 
first. It was certainly a new scene, this of two 
lovers studying a volume of the code, which 
Emmanuel had procured to teach his mistress the 
laws relative to the property of minors; she soon 
seized their spirit, thanks to the penetration natural 
to women, rendered still keener by love. 

The next day Gabriel returned to the paternal 
roof. When M. de Solis gave him into the hands of 
Balthazar, announcing his admission to the Poly- 
technic School, the father thanked the principal by 
a wave of his hand, and said, “ I am very glad of it, 
Gabriel will be a savant!” 

“Oh, my brother!” said Margaret, as she saw 
Balthazar returning to his laboratory ; “ work hard, 
but do not spend much money! Do all that ought 
to be done, but be economical! On the days you go 
to Paris, visit our friends, our relatives, so as not to 
contract any of the tastes which ruin young men. 
Your education amounts to nearly three thousand 
francs, so you will have a thousand francs left for 
pocket-money, which ought to be enough.” 

“ I will be answerable for him,” replied Emmanuel 
de Solis, slapping his pupil on the shoulder. 

A month afterwards, M. de Conyncks had, in con- 
cert with Margaret, obtained from Claes all the 
desired guarantees. The plans so wisely conceived 


The Hotise of Claes, 


201 


by Emmanuel de Solis were approved and executed 
to their full extent. Confronted by the law, and in 
presence of his cousin, whose severe probity was not 
to be trifled with in questions of honor, Balthazar, 
ashamed of the sale he had consented to when' 
harassed by his creditors, submitted to everything 
that was asked of him. Glad to be able to repair the 
damage he had almost involuntarily done his chil- 
dren, he signed the deeds with the preoccupation of 
a savant. He had become completely short-sighted, 
dike^ the negro- who sells his wife in. the morning 
for a drop of brandy, and cries for her when night 
comes. He did not give one single glance to the 
morrow ; he never asked himself what would be his 
resources when he had melted down his last coin ; 
he prosecuted his labors, continued his purchases, 
without knowing that he was nothing more than the 
titular possessor of his house or of his property, and 
that it would be impossible for him — thanks to the 
severity of the laws — to obtain a sou upon the prop- 
erty of which he was, in a manner, the judicial 
guardian. 

The year i8i8 passed away without any untoward 
event. The two young girls paid the amounts neces- 
sary for the education of Jean, and for the household 
expenses, with the eighteen thousand francs yielded 
by their investment in Gabriel’s name, the half- 
yearly dividends of which were regularly sent them 
by their brother. M. de Solis lost his uncle in the 
month of December of this year. One morning 


202 


The Alchemist, or 


Margaret learned that her father had sold his collec- 
tion of tulips, the furniture of the front house, and 
all the silver plate. She was obliged to redeem the 
plate absolutely necessary for the table, and had it 
marked with her own cipher. Up to that day, she 
had kept silent upon Balthazar’s depredations; but 
in the evening, after dinner, she requested Felicieto 
leave her alone with her father; and when he was 
seated, according to his custom, by the chimney 
corner in the parlor, Margaret said to him : 

“ My dear father, you are the master here, and 
can sell everything, even your children. We all 
obey you without a murmur; but I am forced to 
bring to your notice that we are without money, 
that we have scarcelv the means of living through 
this year, and that Felicie and I shall be obliged to 
work night and day at the lace dress we have 
undertaken, to pay for Jean’s schooling. I conjure 
you, my good father, to discontinue your labors.” 

“You are right, my child ; in six weeks all will be 
ended. I shall have found the Absolute, or the Abso- 
lute will be a thing not to be found. You will then 
all be rich, with millions to — ” 

“ In the mean time, leave us a morsel of bread, 
father !” she replied. 

“ Bread ! — what ! no bread here !” said Claes, in 
an accent of terror ; “ no bread in the house of Claes ! 
Where’s all our property ?” 

“ You have razed the forest of Waignies. The 
land is encumbered, and can produce nothing. As 


The House of Claes. 


203 


for your farms at Orchies, the rents are not sufficient 
to pay the interest of the sums you have borrowed.” 

“ What do we live on, then ?” he asked. 

Margaret showed him her needle, and added : 
“ Gabriel’s income helps us, but it is not sufficient. 
I will make the two ends of the year meet, if you 
will not overwhelm me with bills which I do not 
expect ; you never tell me of the purchases you 
make in the city. When I think I am provided for 
the quarter, and my little arrangements are all made, 
in comes a bill for soda, potash, zinc, sulphur, and I 
know not what !” 

“ My dear child, six weeks more patience ! After 
that I will conduct myself prudently. And you shall 
see wonders, my little Margaret !” 

“ It is quite time you thought of your affairs. You 
have sold everything — pictures, tulips, plate ; we 
have nothing left ! At least contract no new 
debts !” 

“ I will not contract any more,” said the old man. 

“ Any more !” she cried. So you have some, 
already ?” 

“ Nothing ; mere trifles,” he replied, casting down 
his eyes and blushing. 

Margaret felt herself, for the first time, humbled 
by the degradation of her father, and suffered so 
much from it, that she did not dare to interrogate 
him. A month after this scene, a banker of the city 
came to demand payment of a note of hand for ten 
thousand francs, signed by Claes. Margaret having 


204 


The Alchemist, or 


requested the banker to wait during, the day, and 
evincing regret that she had not been made aware 
of the existence of the note, the banker informed her 
that the house of Protez and Chiffreville had nine 
others, of the same amount, falling due from month 
to month. 

“All is over!” cried Margaret; “the hour has 
come !” 

She sent for her father, and walked with hasty 
steps, and in great agitation, about the parlor, talk- 
ing to herself. “We must get one hundred thous- 
and francs, or have our father go to prison ! What 
is to be done ?” 

Balthazar did not come down. Tired of waiting 
for him, Margaret went up to the laboratory. On 
entering, she found her father in an immense room, 
strongly lighted, filled with machines and dusty 
glass vessels; here and there books, tables loaded 
with ticketed and numbered parcels. The disorder 
flowing from the chemist’s preoccupation was every- 
where repugnant to the cleanly habits of the Flem- 
ings. Over a grand museum of bottles, retorts, 
metals, fantastically colored crystallizations, speci- 
mens nailed to the walls or carelessly tossed upon 
the furnaces, towered Balthazar Claes, without his 
coat, his arms bare like those of a workman, and his 
open' breast covered with hair as white as that on 
his head. His eyes were intensely, frightfully, fixed 
upon a pneumatic machine. The recipient of this 
machine was surmounted and closed by a lens of 


The House of Claes. 


205 


double convex glasses, the interior of which was 
filled with alcohol ; it collected the rays of the sun, 
which entered by one of the compartments of the 
little garret window. The recipient, the plateau of 
which was isolated, communicated wdth the wires of 
an immense voltaic battery. 

Lemulquinier, occupied in moving the plature of 
this machine, which was mounted on a movable axle, 
in order to keep the lens^in a direction perpendicu- 
lar to the rays of the sun, rose up, his face black 
with dust, exclaiming : 

“ Ah, mademoiselle, don’t come in !” 

The appearance of her father, who, almost kneel- 
ing before his machine, received the light of the sun 
full upon his head, the thin hairs of which resembled 
silver thread ; his skull scored with frequent bumps, 
his countenance contracted by breathless expecta- 
tion ; the singularity of the objects which sur- 
rounded him ; the obscurity of vast parts of this 
immense loft, from which strange machines seemed 
to start forth — all contributed to strike Margaret, 
who said to herself with an accent of terror : 

“ My father is mad !” She approached him, and 
whispered in his ear: “ Send away Lemulquinier.” 

“ No, no, my child ; I want him. I am expecting 
the issue of a beautiful experiment, which nobody 
else has dreamed of, We have been watching three 
days for a ray of the sun. I have found the means 
of subjecting metals, in a perfect void, to concen- 
trated rays of the sun and electric currents. Look ; 


2o6 


The Alchemisty or 


in a moment the most energetic action a chemist can 
produce will burst forth, and I alone — ” 

‘‘ Yes, father, but instead of vaporizing metals, you 
ought to keep them to pay your notes of hand 
with !” 

“ Wait! wait! I tell you.” 

‘‘ M. Mersktus has been here, father ; he demands 
ten thousand francs at four o’clock !” 

“ Yes, yes, I know ; presently. I did sign a few 
such notes to fall due this month, that’s true ; but I 
thought 1 should have found the Absolute. Good 
God! if it were a July sun my experiment would 
succeed !” 

He clutched his thin gray hair, seated himself in 
an old cane chair, and the tears rolled down his 
cheeks. 

“ You are right, sir. It’s all owing to that beg- 
garly sun ; it’s too weak ! the lazy, idle — ” 

The master and servant heeded Margaret no 
more. 

“ Leave us, Lemulquinier,” she said. 

“ Ha ! I see a new experiment,” exclaimed Claes. 

Father, you must forget your experiments,” said 
his daughter, when they were left alone ; “ you have 
a hundred thousand francs to pay, and we do not 
own a sou. Leave your laboratory, your honor is at 
stake. What will become of you in prison? Would 
you soil your gray hairs and the name of Claes by 
the infamy of bankruptcy ? I oppose it ; I will find 
strength to combat your madness ; it would be 


The House of Claes, 


20 / 


frightful to see you without bread in your old age. 
Open your eyes to our position ! exert a little rea- 
son !” 

“ Madness !” cried Balthazar, who drew himself 
up, fixed his luminous e3^es upon his daughter, 
crossed his arms upon his breast, and repeated the 
word “ madness ” so majestically, that Margaret 
trembled. Ah, your mother would not have 
uttered that word !” he replied ; she was not igno- 
rant of the importance of my researches ; she studied 
a science in order to understand me ; she knew that 
I worked for humanity’s sake, that there was nothing 
selfish or sordid in me. The devotion of a woman 
who loves is, I see, beyond all filial affection' Yes, 
love is the most beautiful of all the sentiments ! 
Exert reason, indeed !” he continued, striking his 
breast. “Do I want reason? Am I not myself? 
We are poor, m}^ child, very well ! I wish it to be 
so. I am your father, obey me. I will make you 
rich when I please. Your fortune ! Bah ! that is a 
trifle ! When I have discovered a dissolvent for 
carbon, I will fill your parlor with diamonds ; and 
that is nothing in comparison with what I am in 
search of. You surely can wait while I am consum- 
ing my life’s blood in gigantic efforts.” 

“ Father, I have no right to ask you for an account 
of the four millions you have squandered in this 
garret to no purpose. I will not mention m}^ 
mother, whom you killed. If I had a husband, I 
should, no doubt, love him as much as my mother 


208 


The Alchemist y or 


loved you, and should be ready to sacrifice every- 
thing- to him as she sacrificed everything to 
you. I have followed her orders by giving 
myself up to you entirely. I have proved it to you 
by not marrying, that you might not be forced to 
give in an account of your guardianship. Let us 
leave the past and think of the present. I have come 
here to represent the necessity you have yourself 
created. Money must be had to provide for your 
notes — do you understand that ? There is nothing 
left here that can be seized but the portrait of your 
ancestor. Van Claes. I come, then, in the name of 
my mother, who proved too weak to defend her 
children against their father, and who ordered me to 
resist you ; I come in the name of my brothers and 
sister, I come, father, in the name of all the Claeses, 
to command you to discontinue your experiments, 
and to make a fortune by other means before you 
resume them. If )^ou arm yourself with your pater- 
nity, which only makes itself felt to kill us, I have, 
on my side, your ancestors and your honor, which 
speak with a louder voice than Chemistry; one’s 
family takes precedence of Science. I have been 
too much your daughter !” 

“ And you now want to be my executioner,” said 
Balthazar, in a weak voice. Margaret made her 
escape that she might not have to abandon the part 
she had undertaken to play ; she thought she heard 
the voice of her mother saying : “ Do not thwart 

your father too mucky love him dearly T 



THE LOVERS STUDYING THE CODE .— Page 199 


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4 


The House of Claes. 


209 


“ Mademoiselle is carrying things with a high 
hand said Lemulquinier, when he went down to 
breakfast. “We were about to lay our hands on 
the secret ; we wanted nothing but one little ray of 
a July sun, for what a man master is ! he has almost 
got into God’s own shoes! We were within that,” 
he said to Josette, clicking the nail of his right 
thumb against one of his front teeth, “ of knowing 
the principle of everything, when, crash ! up comes 
miss with her foolish notes of hand ! ” 

“Very well! pay the notes out of your wages,” 
retorted Martha. 

“ Is there no butter to put on my bread ?” said 
Lemulquinier to Josette. 

“ Where is the money to buy butter with ?” replied 
the cook, sharply. “ You old monster, you, if you 
can make gold in your devil’s kitchen, why can’t 
you make a little butter ? It ought not to be so dif- 
ficult, and you might sell some at market to keep the 
pot boiling. The rest of us eat dry bread ! The 
two young ladies are satisfied with bread and wal- 
nuts ; would you be better fed than your employers ? 
Mademoiselle means to spend only a hundred francs 
a month for the entire family. We make but one 
dinner, the whole of us. If you want dainties, you 
have your furnaces up yonder, where you make 
pearl stews, so that people talk of nothing else at 
market ! Make some roast chicken, won’t you ?” 

Lemulquinier took up his bread, and went out. 

“ He is going to buy something with his own 


2 lO 


The Alchemist, or 


money,” said Martha, ‘‘so much the better, it will be 
so much saved. What a miser he is, the Chinaman.” 

“ We ought to have starved him out !” said Josette. 
“ For a week past he has not scrubbed a thing. I do 
all his work, he is always up yonder ; he might pay 
me for it by treating us to a few herrings ; let him 
bring ’em, and see if I don’t contrive to get some of 
’em.” 

“ Ah !” said Martha, “ I hear mademoiselle crying. 
Her old conjurer of a father will swallow the house, 
without saying a Christian word. The sorcerer ! In 
my country they would have burned him alive 
before this ; but they have no more religion here 
than among the Moors of Africa.” 

Mademoiselle Claes but ill concealed her sobs as 
she crossed the gallery ; she reached her chamber, 
took out her mother’s letter, and read as follows : 

“ My Child, — If God permits it, my spirit will 
pervade your heart when you read these lines, the 
last I shall ever trace. They are full of love for my 
dear little ones, who are left abandoned to a demon 
I have not had the power to resist. He will have 
then consumed your bread, as he has consumed my 
life and even my love. You know, my beloved 
child, whether I loved your father ! I am about to 
expire loving him less, since I am taking precautions 
against him which I would not have avowed in my 
lifetime. Yes, I am to keep in the depths of my 
cofhn a last resource for the day when you have 


The House of Claes, 


2 I T 


reached the climax of misfortune. If he has reduced 
you to indigence, or if it be necessary to preserve 
your honor, my child, you will find at M. de Solis’, 
if he is still living, and if not, at his nephew’s, about 
a hundred and seventy thousand francs, which will 
help you to live. If nothing has subdued his pas- 
sion, if his children are not a stronger barrier against 
him than my happiness has been, and cannot stop 
him in his criminal career, quit your father. Live at 
any rate. I could not abandon him, it was my duty 
to sacrifice myself. You, Margaret, save the family. 
I absolve you for anything you may do to defend 
Gabriel, Jean and Felicie. Take courage. Be the 
guardian-angel of the Claeses. Be firm, I do not 
dare to say without pity ; but, to remedy the evil 
already done, some fortune must be preserved, and 
you must remember that you have but just escaped 
penury ; nothing will check the fury of the passion 
that has made me what I am. Thus, my child, you 
will best show your fulness of heart by forgetting 
your heart ; your dissimulation, if it be necessary to 
tell your father an untruth, will be glorious ; your 
actions, however blamable they may appear, will be 
heroic if performed with the object of protecting the 
family. The virtuous M. de Solis has told me so ; 
and never was conscience more pure or clear-sighted 
than his. I should not have had the strength to tell 
you this, even when dying. Always be respectful 
and kind in this horrible struggle. Resist while lov- 
ing; refuse with gentleness. Thus my tears will 


2 I 2 


The Alchemisty or 


have been unseen, and my sorrows will not break out 
till after my death. Kiss my dear children in my 
name, at the moment you thus become their protec- 
tress. 

“ May God and the saints be with you ! 

“ Josephine.” 

To this letter was attached an acknowledgment of 
MM. de Solis, uncle and nephew, by which they 
engaged to hand over the deposit left in their hands 
by Madame Claes to that one of her children who 
should present this letter. 

“ Martha,” cried Margaret to the duenna, who 
promptly responded to the call ; “ go to M. Emman- 
uel, and request him to come here. Noble, discreet 
creature, he has never said a word of this to me,” 
thought she, “ to me, whose annoyances and sorrows 
he has made his own.” 

Emmanuel arrived before old Martha returned. 

“ So you have had secrets from me !” she said, 
pointing to the letter. 

Emmanuel hung down his head. 

‘‘ Margaret, you are very unhappy, are you not ?” 
he replied, the tears rising to his eyes. 

Oh, yes! be my support, you whom my mother 
calls our good Emmanuely' she returned, showing 
him the contents of the letter, and unable to repress 
a feeling of joy at seeing her choice ratified by her 
mother. 

My blood and my life were yours from the day 


The House of Claes, 


213 


I first saw you in the gallery,” he replied, weeping 
with both joy and sorrow ; “ but I did not know, I 
did not even hope, that one day you would accept 
my blood. If you know me well, you know that my 
word is sacred. Pardon me this perfect obedience 
to the will of your mother; it did not become me to 
criticise her intentions.” 

‘ You have saved us,” Margaret replied, interrup- 
ting him, and taking his arm to go down to the 
parlor. 

After having learned from what source the sum 
Emmanuel had in his hands was derived, Margaret 
told him of the sad necessity which hung over the 
house. 

I must go and pay these notes,” said Emmanuel. 
“ If they are all in the hands of Mersktus, you will 
gain the interest. I will bring you the seventy thous- 
and francs remaining. My poor uncle left me a 
similar sum in ducats, which it will be easy to 
transport hither secretly.” 

“ Yes,” she said, “ bring them at night; when my 
father is asleep. Between us we will conceal them. 
If he knew I had money, he would — perhaps — take 
it from me by force. Oh, Emmanuel ! to mistrust 
one’s father !” she added, weeping, and leaning her 
brow upon the young man’s breast. 

This graceful, though melancholy little action, 
by which Margaret sought protection, was the first 
expression of that love still enveloped in melancholy, 
still confined within a sphere of gdef ; but her too 


214 


The Alchemist, or 


full heart was forced to overflow, and when it did 
so, it was under the weight of the merest trifle. 

“ What is to be done ? What will become of him ? 
He sees nothing, he cares for nothing, either on his 
own account or on ours, or how could he live in that 
garret, where the air is so burning hot?” 

What can you expect from a man who 9very 
moment is exclaiming, with Richard III., ‘ My 
kingdom for a horse !’ ” said Emmanuel. “ He will 
always be pitiless, and you must learn to be no less 
so. Pay these notes, give him, if you like, your 
own fortune ; but that of your sister, that of your 
brothers, is neither his nor yours.” 

“ Give him my fortune !” she said, pressing 
Emmanuel’s hand, and giving him a look beamign 
with love. “ You advise me to do so, whilst Pier- 
quin invented a thousand falsehoods to persuade 
me to keep it.” 

“ Alas ! I am an egotist, perhaps, in my own way,” 
he returned ; “ sometimes I wish you to be without 
fortune, it seems as if you would then be nearer to 
me ; and then, at others, I wish you rich and happy, 
and feel that it is a narrow view of things to fanc,y 
ourselves separated by the poor grandeurs of 
wealth.” 

Do not let us talk of ourselves, dear!” 

Of ourselves!” he repeated, intoxicated with 

joy. 

Then, after a pause he added, The evil is great, 
but it is not irreparable,” 


The House of Claes, 


215 


“ It will • be remedied by ourselves alone ; the 
Claes family has no longer a head. Into what gulf 
has my father fallen, that he should have come to 
be no longer a father or a man, to have no notion of 
the just or the unjust; for great, generous, honest as 
he is, he has dissipated, in spite of the law, the prop- 
erty of his children, whose protector he should have 
been! What can he be seeking for?” 

Unfortunately, my dear Margaret, if he is wrong 
as the head of a family, he is scientifically right, and 
a score of men in Europe will admire him when all 
the rest will accuse him of madness ; but you can 
without scruple refuse him the fortune of his chil- 
dren. Discoveries have always been matters of 
chance. If your father is to find the solytion of his 
problem, he will find it without all this expense, and 
perhaps at the very moment he is despairing of it.” 

“ My poor mother is happy,” said Margaret ; “ she 
would have suffered death a thousand times before 
dying, she who perished in her first tilt with science. 
But this struggle has no end.” 

“ There is an end,” replied Emmanuel. “ When 
your resources are exhausted, M. Claes will no 
longer get credit, and will stop.” 

“ Let him stop this very day, then 1” cried Mar- 
garet ; “ we are Avithout means.” 

M. de Solis went to redeem the notes, and brought 
them back to Margaret. Balthazar came down a 
few minutes before dinner, contrary to his usual cus- 
tom. For the first time in two yeaps, his daughter 


The Alchemist, or 


216 


perceived unequivocal symptoms of deep sadness in 
his countenance ; he had become, for the moment, a 
father again ; reason had expelled science. He 
looked into the court, and into the garden, and 
when he was certain of being alone with his daugh- 
ter, he approached her with a manner full of melan- 
choly and kindness. 

“ My child,” he said, taking her hand and press- 
ing it affectionately, “ forgive your old father ! Yes, 
Margaret, I have been wrong, you alone are right. 
As long as I am unable to find what I am seeking, I 
am a miserable wretch. I will leave this place. I 
will not stay to see Van Claes sold,” he added, 
pointing to the portrait of the martyr. “ He died 
for liberty, I shall die for science ; — he venerated, I 
hated.” 

“ Hated, father ! no !” Margaret cried, throwing 
her arms round his neck. “We all adore you ; do 
we not, Felicie?” she said to her sister, who came in 
at the moment. 

“ What is the matter, dear father ?” said the 
younger daughter, taking his hand. 

“ I have ruined you !” 

“ Never think of that,” said Felicie ; “ our brothers 
will make our fortunes; Jean is still at the head of 
his class.” 

“ Look here, father,” said Margaret, leading her 
father in a manner at once graceful and filial towards 
the mantelpiece, and taking several papers from 
beneath the clock ; “ here are your notes of hand. 


The House of Claes. 


2 i 7 

but do not sign any more, there would be nothing 
to pay them with.” 

“ So you have money, Margaret ?” whispered Bal- 
thazar in his daughter’s ear, when he had a little 
recovered from his surprise. 

This question almost suffocated the heroic girl ; 
such delirium, such joy, such hope gleamed from 
her father’s countenance, as he looked around him, 
apparently in search of gold. 

‘‘ Father,” she said, with a painful accent, I have 
my own fortune.” 

“ Give it me,” said he, allowing a greedy gesture 
to escape him, — “ give it me, and I will return it to 
you a hundred fold.” 

“ Yes, 1 will give it you,” replied Margaret, look- 
ing at Balthazar, who did not comprehend Avhat 
his daughter meant. 

“ Ah ! my beloved child !” he exclaimed, “ you 
will save my life ! I have conceived one last experi- 
ment, after which there is nothing possible. If I do 
not succeed this time, I must abandon the search. 
Give me your arm ; come, my darling, and I will 
make you the happiest woman on earth! You 
restore me to happiness, to glory ! You give me the 
means of loading you with riches ! I will overwhelm 
you with jewels and treasures 1” 

He kissed his daughter’s brow, he took her hands, 
he pressed them, and showed his joy by caresses 
which appeared to Margaret almost servile. During 
dinner, Balthazar saw nothing but her ; he watched 


2i8 


The Alchemist, or 


her with the earnestness, the attention, the eagerness 
of a lover with his mistress. Did she but move, he 
sought to divine her thought or her wish, and rose 
hastily to serve her. He made her feel ashamed, for 
his attentions bore a character of youth which con- 
trasted harshly with his premature old age. But 
Margaret replied to all these winning ways by a 
picture of their present distress, in the form of a 
gentle hint, or a glance at the empty shelves of their 
dining-room. 

“ Nonsense !” he exclaimed, “ in six months we will 
fill them all with gold and wonders! You shall be a 
queen ! Bah ! all nature will be ours ! We shall be 
above everything — and all by your means, Margaret. 
Margaret,” he went on with a smile, “ your very 
name is a prophecy. Margarita means a pearl. 
Sterne says so somewhere. Have you read Sterne? 
Should you like a Sterne ? It would amuse you.” 

“ The pearl is, they say, the effect of a disease,” 
replied Margaret, “and we have suffered much 
already !” 

“ Oh, don’t be cast down ! You will make all who 
love you happy, you will be so powerful, so rich !” 

“ Mademoiselle has such a kind heart !” said 
Lemulquinier, whose face, which resembled a spoon 
for skimming soup, grimaced a painful smile. 

During the rest of the evening Balthazar brought 
all the graces of his character, and all the charms of 
his conversation, to bear upon his daughters. 
Seductive as the serpent, his speech and looks 


The House of Claes, 


219 


diffused a magnetic fluid, and he was prodigal of 
that power of genius, that delightful spirit, which 
had fascinated Josephine, and he placed, so to say, 
his daughters in his heart. 

When Emmanuel de Solis came, he found for the 
first time in a long while, the father and daughters 
together. In spite of his reserve, the young princi- 
pal was subdued by the influence of the scene, for 
the manners and conversation of Balthazar possessed 
an irresistible charm. Although plunged deeply in 
the abysses of thought, and incessantly occupied in 
observing the moral world, men of science, never- 
theless, notice the minutest details of the sphere in 
which they live. They are deficient in the sense of 
time and place rather than absent, and are never in 
harmony with things about them, they know and 
yet forget everything ; they prejudge the future, 
prophesy for themselves alone, are aware of an event 
before it happens, but have never said anything about 
it. If, in the silence of meditation, they have made 
use of their power to observe what is passing around 
them, it is sufficient for them to have divined it. 
Labor carries them away, and they almost always 
apply the knowledge they have acquired of the 
affairs of life, erroneously. 

Sometimes, when they are roused from their social 
apathy, or when they fall from the moral into the 
external world, they come thither with a teeming 
memory, and seem quite familiar with everything. 
Thus Balthazar, who joined perspicacity of heart to 


220 


The Alckemzsty or 


perspicacity of brain, knew all his daughter’s past ; 
he knew, or had guessed, the slightest events of the 
mysterious love which united her with Emmanuel ; 
he proved it to them with tact, and sanctioned their 
affection by sharing it. It was the sweetest flattery 
a father could pay, and the two lovers were unable 
to resist it. 

This evening was delightful in the contrast it 
offered to the griefs which threatened the lives of 
these poor children. When after having, so to say, 
filled them with his light and bathed them in tender- 
ness, Balthazar retired, Emmanuel de Solis, who 
had till that moment maintained an air of embarrass- 
ment, relieved himself of the three thousand ducats 
in gold, which he had kept in his pockets, that they 
might not be seen. He laid them on Margaret’s 
work-table, and she covered them with the linen she 
was at work upon ; after which he went to fetch the 
rest of the sum. When he returned, Felicie was 
gone to bed. Eleven o’clock struck. Martha, who 
sat up to undress her young mistress, was engaged 
with Felicie. 

** Where shall we hide it?” said Margaret, who 
had not been able to resist the pleasure of handling 
some of the ducats — a childish whim which ruined 
her. 

‘‘ I will raise this marble column, the pedestal of 
which is hollow,” said Emmanuel ; “ you can slip the 
rolls of coins in, and the devil himself would never 
think of looking for them there.’* 


As Margaret was making her last journey but one 
from the work-table to the column, she uttered a 
piercing cry, let fall the rolls, the coins of which 
burst the papers and were scattered about the floor ; 
her father stood at the parlor door, with an expres- 
sion of avidity upon his face that terrified her. 

What are you doing there ?” he said, looking by 
turns at his daughter, chained by fear to the floor, 
and at the young man, who had instantly sprung up, 
but whose attitude, close to the column, was suffi- 
ciently significant. The rattle of the gold on the 
floor was horrible, and its being scattered about 
appeared prophetic. 

“ I was not mistaken, then,” said Balthazar, sitting 
down ; I did hear the sound of gold.” 

He was no less agitated than the two young peo- 
ple, whose hearts beat so perfectly in unison, that 
their movements could be heard like the ticking of 
a pendulum, amidst the profound silence which pre- 
vailed all at once in the parlor. 

“ I am much obliged to you, M. de Solis,” said 
Margaret to Emmanuel, with a glance which plainly 
said, Help me save this sum.” 

What ! this gold — ” resumed Balthazar, darting 
glances of fearful lucidity at his daughter and 
Emmanuel. 

This gold belongs to M. de Solis, who has had 
the kindness to lend it to me to meet our engage- 
ments,” she replied. 

Emmanuel blushed, and offered to retire. 


222 


The Alchemist, or 


“ Sir,” said Balthazar, stopping him by taking his 
arm, “ do not evade the expression of my thanks.” 

“ Sir, you owe me nothing. The money belongs 
to Mademoiselle Margaret, who borrows it of me 
upon her property,” he replied, looking at his 
betrothed, who thanked him with an almost imper- 
ceptible motion of the eyelids. 

“ I will not allow that,” said Claes, who took a pen 
and a sheet of paper from the table at which Felicie 
was wont to write, and turning towards the two 
astonished young people, said : How much . is 

there ?” 

Passion had rendered Balthazar more cunning 
than the sharpest of defrauding stewards would have 
been ; the money was about to be his. Margaret 
and de Solis hesitated. 

“ Let us count it,” he added. 

“There are six thousand ducats,” replied the 
young man. 

“ Seventy thousand francs,” rejoined Claes. 

The glance Margaret threw her lover gave him 
courage. 

“ Sir,” said he, in a tremulous voice, “ your signa- 
ture is of no value — pardon me the purely technical 
expression. I this morning lent mademoiselle a hun- 
dred thousand francs to take up some notes that yon 
were not in a position to pay ; you cannot, there- 
fore, give me any security. These hundred and 
seventy thousand francs belong to your daughter, 
who has it in her power to dispose of them as she 


The House of Claes, 


223 


thinks fit ; but I only lent them to her upon her 
promise to sign an agreement by which I can get 
security upon her portion of the bare lands of 
Waignies.” 

Margaret turned away her head to conceal the 
tears which rose to her eyes. She was well 
acquainted with the purity of heart which distin- 
guished Emmanuel. Brought up by his uncle in the 
most severe practice of the religious virtues, the 
young man entertained an especial horror for false- 
hood ; after having offered Margaret his life and his 
heart, he now made her, still further, the sacrifice of 
his conscience. 

“ Farewell, sir,” said Balthazar to him, “ I thought 
you would have had more confidence in a man who 
looked upon you with the eyes of a father.” 

After exchanging a deplorable look with Margaret, 
Emmanuel was conducted by Martha to the street- 
door, which she closed and fastened after him. 

The moment Claes was left alone with his daugh- 
ter, he said, “ You love me, do you not ?” 

“ Attempt no subterfuges, father ; you wish to 
have this money, but you shall not have it.” 

She began to pick up the ducats, her father silently 
helping her to get them together and verify the 
amount, which Margaret allowed him to do without 
evincing the least distrust. The two thousand 
ducats being collected in piles, Balthazar said, in a 
tone of despair : 

Margaret, T must have this money !” 


224 


The Alchemist, or 


“ It would be a robbery if you took it,” she replied, 
coldly. “ Listen to me, father ; it would be far bet- 
ter to kill us at a single blow than to ask us to suffer 
a thousand deaths every day. Answer, which of us 
ought to yield, we or you ?” 

“You will assassinate your father, then,” he 
returned. 

“We shall avenge our mother,” she said, pointing 
to the place where her mother had died. 

“Daughter! daughter! if you knew what it was 
for, you would not speak thus to me. Listen, I will 
explain the problem to you. But you would not 
understand me !” he cried in a tone of despair. 
“ Come ! give it to me ! Have faith in your father. 
Yes, I know I gave your mother great pain ; that I 
have dissipated, to use the term of the ignorant, my 
own fortune, and damaged yours; that you all of 
you work for what you call a madness ; but my 
angel, my well-beloved, my love, Margaret, listen to 
me ! If I do not succeed, I will give myself up and 
will obey you as you ought to obey me. I will do as 
you wish ; I will place the management of my for- 
tune in your hands ; I will no longer be the guardian 
of my children, I will divest myself of all authority. 
I swear it, by the memory of your mother!” he 
cried, bursting into tears. Margaret turned away 
her head that she might not see his face bedewed 
with tears, and Claes threw himself on his knees at 
her feet, thinking she was about to yield. 

“ Margaret ! Margaret ! give it to me ! give it to 


The House of Claes. 


225 


me ! What are sixty thousand francs in comparison 
with eternal remorse ? For I shall die ! This will 
kill me ! Listen to me, my word shall be sacred. 
If I fail, I will abandon the task ; I will quit Flan- 
ders, France even, if you require it, and go and work 
as a laborer in order to retrieve my fortune, sou by 
sou, and repay my children what science has robbed 
them of.” 

Margaret endeavored to raise her father up, but 
he persisted in remaining on his knees, and added, 
with a fresh flood of tears : Be, for once and for 

the last time, tender and devoted ! If I do not suc- 
ceed, I will myself admit the justice of your severity. 
You shall call me an old madman! You shall say 
Fm a bad father! You shall even pronounce me an 
ignorant dolt ! And when I hear the words, I will 
kiss your hand. You may beat me, if you like, and 
as you strike me, I will bless you as the best of 
daughters, in remembrance of your having given 
me your blood.” 

If it only concerned my blood, I would give it 
up, but can I see my brothers and my sister des- 
troyed by Science? No! Cease, cease!” she said, 
wiping her eyes, and repulsing her father’s cares- 
sing hands. 

“ Sixty thousand francs and two months,” he 
exclaimed, rising in a rage, ‘‘ for that is all I want ; 
but my daughter places herself between glory, riches, 
and me. Be accursed, then !” he added. “ You 
are neither a daughter nor a woman ; you have no 


226 


The Alchemisty or 


heart ; you will be neither a mother nor a wife. Let 
me have it ! Come, dear, blessed angel, my beloved 
child, I will adore you,” he cried, reaching his hand 
towards the gold with a movement of fierce energy. 

“ I am without defence against force, but God and 
the great Claes see us,” said Margaret, pointing to 
the portrait. 

“Well, then, try to live covered with the blood 
of your father!” cried Balthazar, casting a look of 
horror upon her. He arose, looked round the parlor 
and went slowly out. On reaching the door, he 
turned round as a mendicant would have done, and 
appealed to his daughter by a gesture, to which 
Margaret only replied by a negative shake of the 
head. 

“Adieu, my daughter,” he said, gently, “try and 
be happy!” 

When he had disappeared, Margaret remained in 
a sort of stupor, which had the effect of isolating her 
from the earth ; she was no longer in the parlor, she 
no longer felt that she had a body, she had wings 
and flew through the spaces of the moral world, 
where everything is immense, where thought brings 
distance and time together, where some hand divine 
lifts the curtain that shrouds the future. 

It appeared to her that whole days passed 
away between every step made by her father in 
ascending the stairs, and then a shudder of horror 
crept over her as she heard him enter his chamber. 
Guided by a presentiment which diffused through 


The House of Claes, 


227 


her soul the vivid glare of a flash of lightning, she 
sprang up the stairs, without light, without noise, 
with the swiftness of an arrow, and saw her father 
standing up with a pistol pointed towards his 
forehead. 

“ Take it all !” she cried, rushing towards him. 

She sank into a chair ; and Balthazar, on seeing 
how pale she was, began to weep as old men weep ; 
he became childish, he kissed her brow, he uttered 
words without meaning, he was ready to jump for 
joy. 

“ Enough, enough, father said Margaret ; “ re- 
member your promise. If you do not succeed, you 
will obey me.” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Oh, mother !” she said, turning towards Madame 
Claes’ bedroom, you would have given it all — 
would you not?” 

“ Sleep in peace,” said Balthazar, “ you are ft good 
girl.” 

“Sleep!” she exclaimed, “I no longer enjoy the 
nights of my youth ; you are making me old, father, 
just as you slowly withered the heart of my 
mother.” 

“ Poor child ! I wish I could reassure you by 
explaining the effects of the magnificent experiment 
I have just conceived ; you would then compre- 
hend — ” 

“ I comprehend nothing but our ruin,” she said, 
with a sigh, as she left him. 


228 


Tlie Alchemist y or 


The next morning was a holiday, and Emmanuel 
brought Jean. 

“Well?” he said, in a melancholy tone, as he 
accosted Margaret. . 

“ I have yielded,” replied she, 

“ My dear love !” said the young man, Avith a 
mingled expression of joy and sorrow, “if you had 
resisted I should have admired you ; but I adore you 
in your weakness.” 

“ My poor Emmanuel, what have we left?” 

“ Leave that to me,” said de Solis, radiant with 
hope, “ we love each other, and all will be well.” 

A few months passed away in perfect tranquillity. 
M. de Solis made Margaret understand that her poor 
savings would never constitute a fortune, and 
advised her to live comfortably, taking the remains 
of the sum of which he had been the depositary, for 
household expenses. During this period, Margaret 
was a prey to anxieties similar to those that had 
agitated her mother in the same circumstances. 
However incredulous she might be, she had come 
to hope in the genius of her father. By an inex- 
plicable phenomenon, many people entertain hope 
without having faith. Hope is the blossom of 
desire, faith is the fruit of certainty. Margaret said 
to herself, “ If my father succeeds, we shall be 
happy.” Claes and Lemulquinier alone said, “We 
shall succeed.” 

Unfortunately, from day to day, Balthazar’s 
countenance became sadder and sadder. When he 


The House of Claes, 


229 


came down to dinner, he sometimes did not dare to 
look his daughter in the face ; but at others, his 
features beamed with triumph. Margaret employed 
her evenings in listening to young de Solis’ explana- 
tion of several legal difficulties ; she overwhelmed 
her father with questions relative to their family 
connections ; and having completed her masculine 
education, she was evidently preparing to execute 
the plan she had been meditating, if her father 
should once more succumb in his duel with the 
Unknown. 

Early in July, Balthazar passed a whole day seated 
on a bench in the garden, plunged in melancholy 
reflections. He looked several times at the vacant 
tulip-bed, at the windows of his wife’s chamber ; he 
doubtless shuddered at thinking what his struggle 
had cost him ; his movements denoted thoughts that 
had nothing to do with science. Margaret came and 
seated herself beside him, with her work, a short 
time before dinner. 

“ Well, father, you hav'e not succeeded ?” 

“ No, my child.” 

“Ah !” she added, in a kind tone, “ I will not make 
you any reproach, we are both equally guilty. I 
only claim the execution of your promise ; it must 
be kept sacred ; you are a Claes. Your children 
will surround you with love and respect ; but from 
this day you belong to me, and owe me obedience. 
Do not be uneasy — my reign will be mild, and I will 
even labor to bring it speedily to an end. I am 


230 


The Alchemist, or 


going to take Martha with me, and shall leave you 
for about a month, in which time I shall be entirely 
taken up with your welfare ; for,” she added, kissing 
his brow, ‘^remember, you are my child now. To- 
morrow, Felicie will assume the management of the 
family. The poor child is only seventeen, and could 
not resist you ; be generous, and do not ask her for 
a sou, for she will have no more than will be strictly 
necessary for household expenses. Have courage, 
abandon your labors and studies for two or three 
years. The problem will ripen, I shall have saved 
money enough to enable you to solve it, and you 
will solve it. There, now, is not your queen cle- 
ment? Tell me.” 

“ All is not lost, then?” said the old man. 

“ No, if you are faithful to your promise.” 

“ I will obey you, my daughter,” replied Claes, 
with profound emotion. 

The next day, M. Cony neks of Cambrai came to 
fetch his grand-niece. He was in a traveling-car- 
riage, and would only stay long enough for Margaret 
and Martha to make themselves ready. Claes 
received his cousin politely, but he was evidently 
depressed and humiliated. Old Conyncks guessed 
Balthazar’s thoughts, and while at breakfast, said to 
him, with rough frankness: 

“ 1 have some of your pictures, cousin ; I have a 
taste for fine pictures ; it is a ruinous passion, but 
we all have our mania.” 

“ Dear uncle !” said Margaret. 


The House of Claes. 


231 


“ People say you are ruined, cousin ; but a Claes 
ahvays has treasures here,” he said, tapping his fore- 
head ; “ay, and here, too, has he not?” he added, 
pointing to his heart. “ Therefore, I depend upon 
you. I have found a few coins in my pocket-book, 
which I have put aside for you.” 

“ Ah !” interrupted Balthazar, “ I Avill return you 
treasures—” 

“ The only treasures we possess in Flanders, cousin, 
are patience and labor,” replied Conyncks, sternly ; 
“ our ancestor there has those two words engraved 
upon his brow,” he added, pointing to the portrait 
of president Van Claes. 

Margaret kissed her father, bade him farewell, 
gave her instructions to Felicie and Josette, and set 
off, post, for Paris. The grand-uncle, who was now 
a widower, had but one daughter, twelve years of 
age, and possessed an immense fortune. It was not 
unlikely, therefore, that he would marry again, and 
the people of Douay took it into their heads that 
Mademoiselle Claes would espouse her grand-uncle. 
The rumor of this wealthy match brought Pierquin 
back to the residence of the Claeses. Great changes 
had taken place in The ideas of this excellent calcu- 
lator. 

For two years past the society of the city had been 
divided into two hostile camps. The nobility had 
formed a first circle, and the bourgeoisie a second, 
naturally very much opposed to the first. This sud- 
den separation, which took place throughout France, 


232 


The Alchemisty or 


and divided it into two unfriendly nations, whose 
jealous irritations were continually on the increase, 
formed one of the principal reasons in the provinces 
for the adoption of the revolution of July, 1830. 
Between these two societies, the one of which was 
ultra-monarchical, and the other ultra-liberal, stood 
the public functionaries, admitted, according to their 
importance, into, one or the other sphere, and who, 
at the moment of the fall of the legitimate line, were 
neuter. At the commencement of the struggle 
between the nobility and the bourgeoisie, the roy- 
alist cafes reached an unheard-of splendor, and 
rivaled the liberal cafes so brilliantly, that this sort 
of gastronomic festivities cost, it is said, the lives of 
several persons who, like unsound mortars, were 
unable to go through the ordeal. Naturally, the two 
societies became exclusive, and purified themselves. 

Although rich for a provincial, Pierquin was exclu- 
ded from the aristocratic circle, and thrust back into 
that of the bourgeoisie. His self-love had suffered 
greatly from the successive checks he had received 
on finding himself insensibly cast off b}^ people with 
whom he had been intimate. He had attained the 
age of forty, the latest period in life when men who 
intend marrying can expect to obtain young wives. 
All the matches he could pretend to belonged to the 
bourgeoisie, and his ambition was to obtain an intro- 
duction into the higher circle through a noble alli- 
ance, and to remain there. ^ 

The isolation in which M. Claes’ family lived had 


The House of Claes. 


233 


kept them ignorant of this social change. Although 
Claes belonged to the old aristocracy of the pro- 
vince, it was probable that his preoccupations would 
prevent his listening to the antipathies created by 
this new classification of persons. However poor 
she might be, a young lady of the house of Claes 
would bring her husband that fortune of vanity for 
which all parvenus are so anxious. Pierquin 
returned, then, to the house, with the secret inten- 
tion of making the necessary sacrifices to bring about 
a marriage which would thenceforward realize his 
ambitious views. He kept company, in consequence, 
with Balthazar and Felicie during the absence of 
Margaret; but he, by degrees, found out that he had 
a formidable rival in Emmanuel de Solis. 

The property left by the late abbe was said to be 
considerable ; and, in the eyes of a man who openly 
reduced everything to figures, the young heir 
appeared more powerful by his money than by the 
attractions of his heart, about Avhich Pierquin never 
troubled himself. This fortune restored all its 
importance to the name of de Solis. Gold and 
nobility were like two chandeliers, which, reflecting 
light from each other, double the brilliancy. The 
sincere affection which the young principal evinced 
for Felicie, whom he treated as a sister, excited the 
emulation of the notary. He endeavored to eclipse 
Emmanuel by mingling the fashionable jargon of the 
day and expressions of superficial gallantry, with the 
dreamy airs and elegiac pensiveness which suited his 


234 


The Alchemist, or 


countenance so well. When saying he was disen- 
chanted with everything in the world, he would turn 
his eyes towards Felicie in a manner to make her 
believe that she alone could reconcile him to life. 

Felicie, addressed for the first time in compli- 
ments, listened to the language which is always so 
sweet, even when false; she mistook its void for 
depth, and in the want which oppressed her of an 
object upon whom to fix the vague feelings with 
which her heart overflowed, she began to think of 
her cousin. Jealous, perhaps unconsciously, of the 
loving attentions which Emmanuel lavished upon 
her sister, she doubtless wished to see herself, like 
Margaret, the object of the looks, thoughts and cares 
of a man. Pierquin easily perceived the preference 
which Felicie gave him over Emmanuel, and this 
was a reason for his persisting in his efforts, so that 
he was led further than he intended. 

Emmanuel watched the commencement of this 
passion, false, perhaps, as regarded the notary, but 
ingenuous on Felicie’s part, while her future life was 
at stake. There ensued between the two cousins 
some of those pleasant little chats, of those hushed 
conversations behind Emmanuel, of those little 
deceits which give to a word, to a look, an expres- 
sion whose insidious sweetness may lead to innocent 
errors. By means of the commerce kept up with 
Felicie, Pierquin endeavored to penetrate the secret 
of the journey undertaken by Margaret, in order to 
learn whether it had anything to do with marriage, 


The House of Claes, 


235 


and whether he ought to abandon all hope ; but, in 
spite of his great keenness, neither Balthazar nor 
Felicie could throw any light upon it, for the very 
good reason that they knew nothing of Margaret’s 
plans, as, on assuming power, she appeared to have 
adopted its maxims, by keeping her projects secret. 

The dull silence and dejection of Balthazar made 
the evenings hang very heavily. Although Emman- 
uel had succeeded in coaxing the chemist to a game 
of backgammon, Balthazar was inattentive to it ; 
and the greater part of his time, this man, so great 
in intellect, appeared actually stupid. Disappointed 
in his hopes, humiliated by having squandered three 
fortunes, a gambler without money, he bowed 
beneath the weight of his ruin, beneath the burden 
of his deceived rather than destroyed hopes. 

This man of genius, muzzled by necessity, and 
self-condemned, presented a spectacle so tragic as to 
touch the most insensible heart. Pierquin himself 
could not contemplate without respect, this impris- 
oned lion, whose eyes, full of subdued power, had 
become calm by dint of sorrow, dim by excess of 
light ; whose looks demanded an alms the lips did 
not dare to ask for. At times, a flash passed over 
his withered face, re-animated by the conception of 
a fresh experiment; and then, if in looking about the 
parlor, the eyes of Balthazar stopped at the spot 
where his wife had expired, thin tears would roll 
like burning grains of sand in the desert of his eye- 
balls, and his head would sink down upon his chest. 


The Alchemist, or 


236 


He had lifted the world like a Titan, and the world ^ 
fell back more heavily on his breast. ; 

This gigantic grief, so heroically restrained, ; 

affected both Pierquin and Emmanuel, who, at times, ^ 

felt themselves sufficiently moved to be willing to " 

offer Balthazar the money requisite for a new series ^ 

of experiments, so communicative are the convic- 
tions of genius ! Both easily conceived how ^ 

Madame Claes and Margaret had been induced to .• 

cast millions into the gulf; but reason speedily > 

checked the promptings of the heart, and their i 

emotions found vent in consolations which only 
rendered the pains of the thunder-stricken Titan 
more acute. 

Claes never spoke of his eldest daughter, and did 
not appear to be uneasy at her absence, or at the 
silence she maintained in never writing to him or 
Felicie. When Pierquin or de Solis asked for news 
from her, he appeared disagreeably affected. Had 
he a presentiment that Margaret was acting against 
him? Did he feel humbled at having resigned the 
majestic rights of paternity to his child? Perhaps 
there were many of these reasons and many of these 
inexpressible feelings which pass like clouds through 
the ‘soul, in the mute disgrace which he allowed to 
hang over Margaret. 

However great great men may be, whether known 
or unknown, fortunate or unfortunate in their 
attempts, they all have littlenesses which connect 
them with humanity. By a double misfortune, they 




The Notts e of Claes. 


237 


suffer no less from their qualities than from their 
defects ; and, perhaps, Balthazar had yet to familiar- 
ize himself with the chagrin of his wounded vanity. 
The life he led, and the evenings during which these 
four persons met together during Margaret’s absence, 
were thus a life and evenings strongly marked with 
melancholy, and full of vague apprehensions. They 
were days as unproductive as the desolate sands of 
the shore, where, nevertheless, they gleaned the rare 
consolation of a few starveling flowers. The atmos- 
phere seemed thick in the absence of the elder 
daughter, who had become the soul, the hope and 
the strength of the family. 

Two months thus passed away, and Balthazar 
waited patiently for his daughter. Margaret was at 
length brought back to Douay by her uncle, who 
remained with them, instead of returning to Cam- 
brai, no doubt with a view of supporting some stroke 
of policy meditated by his niece, by his own author- 
ity. Margaret’s return was a little family fete. 
The notary and M. de Solis had been invited to din- 
ner by Balthazar and Felicie. When the carriage 
stopped before the door, these four persons went out 
to receive the travelers with great demonstrations 
of joy. Margaret seemed happy to return to her 
paternal hearth; her eyes filled with tears as she 
crossed the court yard toward the parlor. When 
kissing her father, her filial caresses were not, how- 
ever, without constraint ; she blushed like a guilty 
wife who is not hardened enough to feign ; but her 


238 


The Alchemist, or 


looks resumed their serenity when she turned 
towards M. de Solis, from whom she seemed to draw 
the strength to achieve the purpose she had secretly 
formed. 

During dinner, notwithstanding the cheerfulness 
which animated their countenances and their conver- 
sation, the father and daughter looked at each other 
with distrust and curiosity. Balthazar asked Mar- 
garet no questions relative to her sojourn in Paris ; 
and that, no doubt, from a sense of paternal dignity. 
Emmanuel de Solis followed this example of reserve. 
But Pierquin, who was accustomed to know all family 
secrets, said to Margaret, veiling his curiosity 
beneath an assumed heartiness of manner: Well, 
my dear cousin, you have seen Paris, its theatres — ” 

I have seen nothing in Paris,” she replied. I 
did not go there in search of amusement. The days 
passed away sadly enough ; I was too impatient to 
see Douay again.” 

“ If I had not been angry with her,” said M. 
Conyncks, “ she would not even have gone to the 
opera, and as it was, she found it quite tiresome 
there.” 

The evening was a trying one, every one felt under 
restraint, every one smiled out of season, and sought 
to exhibit that factitious gaiety which conceals a 
genuine anxiety. Margaret and Balthazar were a 
prey to dark and cruel apprehensions which reacted 
upon the hearts of all. The further the evening 
advanced, the more agitated became the counten- 


The Hotise of Claes. 


239 


ances of the father and the daughter. Now and 
then Margaret attempted to smile, but her gestures, 
her looks, the sound of her voice, betrayed a lively 
solicitude. MM. Conyncks and de Solis seemed to 
be aware of the cause of the secret emotions that 
agitated the noble girl, and appeared to encourage 
her by expressive glances. 

Wounded at having been left in ignorance of a 
resolution and proceedings framed and undertaken 
on his account, Balthazar separated insensibly from 
his children and his friends, by affecting to preserve 
silence. Margaret, doubtless, was about to acquaint 
him with her decision in regard to him. To a great 
man, to a father, this situation was intolerable. He 
had arrived at an age when people dissemble noth- 
ing among their children, when the grasp of their 
ideas gives strength to their feelings, and he became 
more and more serious, thoughtful and gloomy, at 
seeing the moment of his civil death approach. 

This evening was big with one of those crises in 
domestic life that can only be explained by images. 
Clouds and thunder were gathering in the heavens, 
there was laughter on the plains ; every one was hot, 
felt the coming storm, looked up, and went hastily 
on his way. M. Conyncks was the first to retire, 
and was conducted to his bedroom by Balthazar. 
During his absence de Solis and Pierquin went away. 
Margaret wished the notary a friendly good-night ; 
she said nothing to Emmanuel, but she pressed his 
hand with a look that moistened her eyes. She sent 


240 


The Alchemist, or 


Felicie to bed, and when Claes returned, he found 
his daughter alone. 

‘‘ My good father,” she said, in a tremulous voice, 
“it required no less than the serious circumstances 
in which we are placed to make me quit my home ; 
but after much pain, and after surmounting great 
difficulties, I return to it with some chance of safety 
for you and for us all. Thanks to your name, to the 
influence of our uncle, and the recommendations of 
M. de Solis, we have obtained you the place of 
receiver of finances in Brittany ; it is said to be 
worth from eighteen to twenty thousand francs a 
year. Our uncle signed your bonds. Here is your 
appointment,” she said, taking a letter from her bag. 
“ Your residence here, during our years of privation 
and sacrifice, would be intolerable ; our father must 
continue in a situation at least equal to the one he 
has always lived in. I will ask you for nothing out 
of your income ; you Avill employ it as may seem to 
you best. I only beg you to reflect that we have 
not one sou in the shape of revenue, and that we 
must live upon what Gabriel can spare us from his 
income. The city will know nothing of this claustral 
life. If you were with us, you would be an obstacle 
to the means my sister and I must employ in our 
endeavors to recover our competence. Is it any 
abuse of the authority you have given me, to place 
you in a situation to retrieve your fortune yourself ? 
In a few years, if you desire it, you will be receiver- 
general.” 


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•• • 1 ' » ^ 

£• ^ 


1 ^' !- • ! 




^ 1 




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The HotLse of Claes. 


241 


‘‘And so, Margaret,” said Balthazar, quietly, “3^011 
turn me out of my house !” 

“ I do not deserve so severe a reproach,” she 
replied, repressing the tumultuous emotions of her 
heart, “ you will return to us when you can reside in 
your native city in a becoming manner. Besides, 
father, have I not your word ?” she added, coldly. 
“ You are bound to obey me. My uncle has remained 
on purpose to accompany you to Brittany, so that 
3"Ou might not have to perform the journey alone.” 

“ I will not go!” cried Balthazar, rising from his 
o^at ; “ I stand in no need of the help of any one to 
etrieve my fortune, and pay what I owe my chil- 
en.” 

Very good,” replied Margaret, without apparent 
motion, “ but I beg you to reflect upon our respec- 
L)ve situations, which I will explain to 3"Ou in a few 
words. If you remain in the house, your children 
will quit it in order to leave you the master of it.” 

Margaret 1 ” cried Balthazar. 

“Then,” she continued, without noticing her 
ther’s irritation, “ it will be necessary to inform the 
mister of finance of your refusal, if 3^011 do not 
.'7cept a lucrative and honorable office, which, in 
spite of our endeavors and influence, we should not 
have obtained without a few thousand-franc notes, 
skilfully slipped b3' m3’ uncle into a lad3^'s glove.” 
‘'To think of your leaving me !’' 

“Either 3^011 must leave us, or we must fly from 
^ou,” she returned. ‘ If I were your only child, I 


242 


The Alchemist, or 


would imitate my mother, without murmuring 
against the fate you would bring me to ; but my 
sister and my two brothers shall not perish of hunger 
or despair by your side. I promised it to her who 
died there,” she said, pointing to the place where her 
mother’s bed used to stand. We have concealed 
our agonies from you — we have suffered in silence — 
now our strength is exhausted. We are not on the 
brink of a precipice— Ave are at the bottom, father! 
To get out of it, Ave not only require courage, but 
our efforts must not be incessantly thwarted by the 
caprices of a passion — ” : 

“ My dear children,” cried Balthazar, seizing 
Margaret’s hand, I will help you — I Avill Avork — ’ 
I—” ■ 

“Well, here are the means,” she replied, holding 
out the ministerial letter. 

But, my angel, the means you offer me to redeem . 
my fortune are too slow. You force me to forego , 
the fruit of ten years of labor, and to lose the enor- 
mous sums that my laboratory represents. “ There,” 
he said pointing to the garret, are all our resources.” 

Margaret walked tOAvards the door, saying, “ As , 
you choose, father 1” 

“ Daughter ! — daughter ! — 3^011 are very hard !” he 
replied, sitting down in a chair, and alloAving her to 
leave the room. 

The next morning Margaret learned from Lemul- 
quinier that M. Claes had gone out. 

This simple information made her turn pale ; and 


i 


The House of Claes. 


243 


the expression of her countenance was so cruelly 
significant, that the old valet said : 

“ Don’t be uneasy, mademoiselle — master said he 
would be back by eleven o’clock to breakfast. He 
has not been to bed. At two o’clock in the morning 
he was still standing in the parlor, looking through 
the windows at the roof of the laboratory. I 
watched in the kitchen and saw him. He was weep- 
ing; he is very unhappy. This is the famous month 
of July, when the sun may perhaps enrich us all ; 
and if you would but — ” 

“ Enough 1 — enough !” said Margaret, imagining 
all the thoughts that must have assailed her father. 

A phenomenon which often occurs with persons 
leading a sedentary life, had already taken place in 
Balthazar ; his life depended, so to say, upon the 
places with which he had identified himself ; his 
thoughts, wedded to his laboratory and his house, 
rendered them indispensable to him, as is the 
Exchange to the stock gambler, who counts holidays 
as lost days. There were his hopes — there descended 
from heaven the only atmosphere from which his 
lungs could draw the vital air. This alliance of 
places and things with men, so powerful with weak 
natures, becomes almost tyrannical with persons 
devoted to science and study. 

To leave his house was to Balthazar a renunciation 
of science — an abandonment of his problem — it was 
death. Margaret was a prey to great agitation till 
breakfast-time. The scene which had so affected 


244 


The Alchemist, or 


Balthazar as to lead him to attempt his life, recurred 
to her memory, and she dreaded a tragic end to the 
desperate situation into which her father had brought 
himself. She went in and out of the parlor, starting 
at every sound of the door-bell. 

At length Balthazar returned. As he crossed the 
court, Margaret, who anxiously examined his coun- 
tenance, could see nothing but the expression of 
passionate grief. When he entered the parlor, she 
advanced towards him to wish him good-day. He 
took her affectionately round the waist, pressed her 
to his heart, kissed her brow, and whispered in her 
ear : “ I have been to get my passport.” 

The sound of his voice, his resigned look, the 
affectionate attitude of her father, almost broke the 
poor girl’s heart and she turned away her head to 
conceal her tears ; but finding she could not sup- 
press them, she went into the garden, and returned 
after weeping at her ease. During breakfast, Bal- 
thazar appeared cheerful, like a man who had made 
up his mind. 

“We are going to set out for Brittany, then, uncle, 
are we ?” he said to M. Conyncks. “ I have always 
had a desire to see that country.” 

“ Living is very cheap there,” replied the old man. 

“ Is father going to leave us?” exclaimed Felicie. 

At that moment M. de Solis entered with Jean. 

“ You must leave him with us to-day,” said Bal- 
thazar, placing Jean by his side. “ I am going away 
to-morrow, and want to bid him farewell.” 


The House of Claes, 


245 


Emmanuel looked at Margaret, who hung down 
her head. It was a dull day, and every one was sad, 
repressing either their thoughts or their tears. It 
was not an absence, it was an exile. Every one was 
instinctively sensible, too, how humiliating it was 
for a father to declare his disasters thus publicly by 
accepting an office and leaving his family, at Bal- 
thazar’s age. He alone was as great as Margaret 
was firm, and seemed to accept nobly this penitence 
for faults which the enthusiasm of genius had led 
him to commit. 

When the evening had gone, and the father and 
daughter were left alone, Balthazar, who, during 
the whole day, had appeared as tender and affection- 
ate as he had been in the happy hours of patriarchal 
life, held out his hand to Margaret, and said to her, 
with a sort of tenderness mingled with despair : 

“ Are you satisfied with your father ?” 

‘‘You are worthy of him!” she replied, pointing 
to the portrait of Van Claes. 

The next morning, Balthazar, followed by Lemul- 
quinier, went up to his laboratory, to bid farewell to 
the hopes he had cherished, and which certain oper- 
ations, already begun, represented as still living. 
The master and the valet looked at each other, with 
a gaze full of melancholy, on entering the apartment 
they were about, perhaps, to quit for ever. Baltha- 
zar contemplated the apparatus upon which his 
thoughts had so long been concentrated, and with 
each part of which was associated the remembrance 


246 


The Alchemist, or 


of an investigation or an experiment. He sadly 
desired Lemulquinier to allow all gases and dan- 
gerous acids to escape, and to separate such sub- 
stances as might lead to explosions. Whilst taking 
these precautions, he uttered regrets as bitter as 
those of a criminal condemned to death, before 
ascending the scaffold. 

“ Here, however,” he said, stopping before an 
evaporating dish, into which the two wires of a vol- 
taic pile 'dipped, is an experiment, the result of 
which we ought to wait for. If it were to succeed, 
frightful thought ! my children would not drive 
away from home a father who could cast diamonds 
at their feet. It is a combination of carbon and sul- 
phur,” he added, talking to himself, in which the 
carbon plays the part of an electro-positive body. 
The crystalization will commence at the negative 
pole, and, in case of decomposition, the carbon would 
be carried there crystalized — ” 

Ah ! that’s the way of it, is it?” cried Lemulqui- 
nier, contemplating his master with admiration. 

Now,” resumed Balthazar, after a pause, “ the 
combination is subjected to the influence of this pile, 
which may act — ” 

“ If you wish, I will increase the effect.” 

“ No, no! it must be left just as it is. Repose and 
time are the essential conditions of crystalization.” 

Dear me, yes ! this crystalization must take its 
time,” echoed the valet. 

If the temperature lowers, the sulphurate of car- 


The House of Claes, 


247 


bon will crystalize,” said Balthazar, continuing to 
express by fragments the indistinct thoughts of a 
meditation complete in his own mind ; “ but if the 
action of the pile operates under certain conditions 
of which I am ignorant — that must be watched — it 
is possible that — but what am I thinking about? 
We have done with chemistry, Mulquinier; we 
must go and manage an office in Brittany.” 

Claes left the room precipitately, and went down 
to partake of a last family breakfast, at which Pier- 
quin and M. de Solis were present. Balthazar, 
anxious to have done with his scientific agony, bade 
adieu to his children, and got into the carriage with 
his uncle, all the family accompanying him to the 
door. 

There, when Margaret had clasped her father in 
an embrace of despair, and he answered in a whisper, 
“ You are a good girl, I shall bear you no grudge !” 
she sprang across the court, escaped into the parlor, 
threw herself upon her knees on the spot where her 
mother had died, and poured out an ardent prayer 
to God to grant her strength to accomplish the try- 
ing labors of her new life. She was already 
strengthened by an inward voice which had breathed 
into her heart the applause of the angels, and the 
thanks of her mother, when her sister, her brother, 
Emmanuel and Pierquin returned, after watching the 
carriage till it was out of sight. 

“ Now, mademoiselle, what do you mean to do ?” 
said Pierquin. 


248 


The Alchemist y or 


“ Save the house/’ she replied, quietly. “ We own 
nearly thirteen hundred acres of land at Waignies. 
My intention is to have them clearefd, to divide them 
into three farms, to construct the necessary build- 
ings, and to let them ; and I believe that in a few 
years, with great economy and patience, each of us,” 
she said, pointing to her sister and her brother, “ will 
have a farm of four hundred and odd acres, which 
may one day be worth nearly fifteen thousand francs 
a year. My brother Gabriel will take, as his share, 
this house, and all his government stocks. Then, we 
will one day surrender our father his fortune, freed 
from all incumbrance, by applying our incomes to 
the acquittal of his debts.” 

“ But, my dear cousin,” said the notary, stupefied 
at Margaret’s knowledge of business and cool rea- 
soning, “ you will want more than two hundred 
thousand francs to clear your land, erect your build- 
ings, and purchase cattle ; where will you obtain 
this sum ?” 

“ There my embarrassment begins,” she said, look» 
alternately at the notary and M. de Solis, “ I dare 
not ask it of my uncle, who is already security for 
my father.” 

So you have friends !” cried Pierquin, perceiv- 
ing all at once that the Claes young ladies would 
still be girls of more than five hundred thousand 
francs apiece. 

Emmanuel looked at Margaret affectionately ; but, 
unfortunately for him, Pierquin was still a notary in 


The House of Claes, 


249 


the midst of his enthusiasm, and thus resumed : “ 1 

will lend you the two hundred thousand francs !” 

Emmanuel and Margaret consulted each other by 
a look, which was a flash of light for Pierquin. 
Felicie blushed excessively, so happy was she to find 
her cousin as generous as she could wish. She 
looked at her sister, who all at once divined that 
during her absence the poor girl had allowed her- 
self to be caught by a few commonplace compli- 
ments. 

“ You shall only pay me five per cent, interest,’’ he 
said; “you may reimbuse me when you like, and 
you can give me a mortgage upon your lands. 
Don’t be alarmed, you will only have the expenses 
to pay for your contracts. I will look out for good 
tenants, and will manage your affairs gratuitously, so 
as to help you as a relation should.” 

Emmanuel made a sign to Margaret, to advise her 
to refuse, but she was too much engaged in watch- 
ing her sister’s changes of countenance to notice 
him. After a pause, she looked at the notary, with 
an ironical smile, and said, of her own accord, to the 
great joy of M. de Solis : “You are a kind relation, 
I expected no less from you ; but interest at five per 
cent, would delay our liberation too long; 1 will 
wait till my brother attains his majority, and we will 
sell his stocks.” 

Pierquin bit his lips, while Emmanuel smiled to 
himself. 

“ Felicie, my dear, take Jean back to school ; Mar- 


50 


The Alchemist, or 


tha will accompany you,” said Margaret, pointing to 
her brot]ier. “Jean, my darling, be a good boy, and 
do not tear your clothes, we are not rich enough to 
buy you new ones as often as we have done. Good- 
bye, study hard.” 

Felicie went out with her brother. 

“ Cousin,” said Margaret to Pierquin, “ and you, 
M. de Solis, you have no doubt been to see my father 
during my absence, and I thank you for this proof of 
friendship. You will do no less, I feel sure, for two 
poor girls in want of advice ; but let us understand 
each other on that subject. When I am at home, I 
shall always receive you with the greatest pleasure ; 
but when Felicie is left alone with Martha and 
Josette, I need not tell you she will see nobody, not 
even an old friend, or the most devoted of our rela- 
tives. Under the circumstances in which we are 
placed, our conduct must be irreproachably circum- 
spect. Here we are, then, for a long time given over 
to labor and solitude.” 

Silence prevailed for several minutes. Emmanuel, 
absorbed in the contemplation of Margaret’s face, 
seemed dumb. Pierquin did not know what to say, 
and took leave of his cousin, feeling heartily angry 
with himself ; he plainly perceived that Margaret 
loved Emmanuel, and that he had behaved like a 
fool. 

“ Ah ! ah ! friend Pierquin,” he said, apostrophiz- 
ing himself in the street ; “ the man who should call 
you a beast would not be far out. How could I be 


The House of Claes, 


251 


so stupid ? 1 have an income of twelve thousand 

francs, besides my place, without reckoning what I 
shall get from my uncle Des Racquets, whose sole 
heir I am, and who will double my fortune some day 
or other ; but I don’t wish him to die, he spends my 
money sparingly. And, with all this, I had the 
meanness to demand interest of Mademoiselle Claes. 
I am sure the two are laughing at me at this very 
moment. I must think no more of Margaret, that’s 
plain ! No ! But, after all, Felicie is a sweet and 
good little creature, who will suit me much better. 
Margaret has a will of iron ; she would wish to 
domineer over me, ay, and she would domineer over 
me ! Come ! come ! let me be a little generous, 
don’t let me be so much of the notary. Can’t I 
shake off the harness? Satchel that I am ! Well, I 
will set about loving Felicie, and from that I won’t 
budge. You bungler; she will have a farm of four 
hundred and thirty acres, which, in a given time, 
will be worth from fifteen to twenty thousand francs 
a year, for the land of Waignies is good. Let my 
uncle Des Racquets die, poor old boy, and I’ll sell 
my notaryship and become a man of fifty thousand 
francs a year. My wife is a Claes. I am allied to 
families of position. Then we’ll see if the Courte- 
villes, the Magalhens, the Savarons de Savarus will 
refuse to visit a Pierquin-Claes-Molina-Nourho ! I 
will be mayor of Douay, I will have the cross of the 
Legion of Honor, I may be deputy. I’ll get all I 
want. Ah ! ah ! Pierquin, my boy ; stick to that, 


252 


The Alchemist, or 


no more fool’s tricks ; and this all the more, because, 
by my word of honor, Felicie, Mademoiselle Felicie 
Van Claes, looks on you with favor.” 

When the two lovers were left alone, Emmanuel 
held out his hand to Margaret, who did not hesitate 
to place her right hand in it. They both rose by a 
spontaneous movement, and were directing their 
steps towards the bench in the garden ; but in the 
middle of the parlor, the lover could not contain his 
joy, and, in a voice which emotion rendered tremu- 
lous, said to Margaret : 

“I have three hundred thousand francs of yours!” 

“How so?” she cried; “did my poor mother 
entrust still more to you?” 

“ Oh, Margaret, is not all that is mine yours ? 
Was it not you who first said wef* 

“Dear Emmanuel!” she said, pressing the hand 
she still held ; and instead of going into the garden, 
she sank into a chair. 

“ Is it not for me to thank you,” he replied in his 
loving voice, “since you accept it?” 

“This moment, my dearly beloved, effaces the 
remembrance of many a sorrow, and brings a happy 
future nearer! Yes, I accept your fortune,” she 
continued, an angelic smile playing upon her lips ; 
“for I know the means of making it mine.” 

She looked at the portrait of Van Claes, as if 
appealing to him as a witness. The young man, who 
followed Margaret’s eyes, did not perceive her take 
from her finger a maiden’s ring, nor did he notice 


The House of Claes. 


253 


her gesture till he heard these words: “Amidst all 
our profound miseries, one joy springs up. My 
father, in his abstraction, leaves me the free disposal 
of myself,’’ she said, holding out the ring; “take it, 
Emmanuel ! My mother loved you ; she would have 
chosen you.” 

Tears rose to Emmanuel’s eyes. He became pale, 
and sank on his knees before Margaret, holding out 
a ring which he always wore. 

“ Here is my mother’s wedding-ring, Margaret,” 
he replied, kissing the ring; “can I offer abetter 
pledge than that?” 

She stooped to present her brow to Emmanuel’s 
lips. 

“Alas! my beloved, are we not doing wrong?” 
she said, much moved, “ for we shall have to wait a 
long tiipe.” 

“My uncle, speaking of the Christian who loves 
God, said that adoration was the daily bread of 
patience. I can love you so. I have long con- 
founded you with the Lord of all things ; I am yours, 
as I am His.” 

They remained for some moments abandoned to 
the sweetest emotions. It was the sincere and calm 
effusion of a sentiment which, like a too full spring, 
overflowed in incessant little waves. The circum- 
stances which separated these two lovers were a 
subject of melancholy which rendered their happi- 
ness more lively by giving it something acute, like 
pain. Felicie returned too soon for them. Emman- 


254 


The Alchemist, or 


uel, enlightened by the delightful tact which makes 
love so instinctive, left the two sisters together, after 
exchanging with Margaret a look in which she might 
see how much this piece of discretion cost him, for 
it told how covetous he was of that long-desired 
happiness which had just been consecrated by the 
betrothal of their hearts. 

“ Come with me, sister,” said Margaret, putting 
her arm round Felicie’s neck, and leading her into 
the garden ; here they sat down upon the bench 
where every succeeding generation had breathed 
out its words of love, its sighs of grief, its medita- 
tions and its plans. In spite of the cheerful tone and 
the amiable cunning of her sister’s smile, Felicie felt 
an emotion not far removed from fear. As Mar- 
garet took her hand, she felt that it trembled. 

“Mademoiselle Felicie,” she said, speaking in her 
sister’s ear, “ I can read in that, little heart of yours. 
Pierquin has been here often during my absence ; he 
has been here every evening ; he has said pretty, 
soft things to you, — ay, and you have listened to 
them !” 

Felicie blushed. 

“ Do not deny it, my angel,” said Margaret, “it is 
so natural to love ! Perhaps your good heart will 
change the nature of our cousin a little ; he is egotis- 
tical, he is selfish, but he is a good sort of man, and, 
no doubt, his very faults will contribute to your hap- 
niness. He will love you as the prettiest part of his 
property ; you will constitute a part of his business. 


The House of Claes, 


255 


Pardon the expression, dear love, but you will cor- 
rect him of the bad habit he has contracted of con- 
sidering self-interest in everything, by initiating him 
into the affairs of the heart.’' 

Felicie could only kiss her sister. 

‘"Besides,” continued Margaret, “he has a fortune. 
His family is one of the highest and most ancient of 
the bourgeoisie. Do you think that 1 would oppose 
your happiness if you seek it in a middle station 
in life?” 

Felicie stammered out, “ Dear sister!” 

“ Oh ! yes, you may tell me everything,” said Mar- 
garet ; “what can be more natural than for us to tell 
each other our secrets?” 

This kindly expression led to one of those deli- 
cious chats in which young girls tell each other 
everything. 

When Margaret, whom love had rendered expert, 
had fathomed Felicie’s heart, she ended by saying : 
“Well, my dear child, let us find out if your cousin 
really loves you ; and then — ” 

“ Oh, leave that to me,” replied Felicie, laughing, 
“ I have my models before me 1” 

“ Crazy girl !” said Margaret, kissing her on her 
forehead. 

Although Pierquin belonged to that class of men 
who see, in marriage, certain obligations, the execu- 
tion of social laws, and a means for the transmission 
of property ; although it was indifferent to him 
whether he married Felicie or Margaret, if both bore 


256 


The Alchemist^ or 


the same name and had the same dowry, he, never- 
theless, perceived that they were both, according to 
one of his expressions, romantic and sentimental girls ^ 
two adjectives which heartless people employ to 
ridicule gifts which nature sows with parsimonious 
hand in the furrows of humanity. The notary doubt- 
less said to himself: “ When at Rome we must do as 
the Romans do,” and went the next day to see Mar- 
garet. He led her mysteriously into the little gar- 
den, and began at once to talk sentiment, as that was 
one of the clauses of the primitive contract, which 
preceded, in the laws of the world, the notarial con- 
tract. 

“ My dear cousin,” he said, we have not always 
been of the same opinion in regard to the means to 
be taken to arrive at a happy settlement of your 
affairs ; but you must acknowledge that I have always 
been guided by an earnest desire to be useful to you. 
Well, yesterday I spoiled my offers by a fatal habit 
given me by the notary spirit — do you understand ? 
My heart was not the accomplice of my stupidity. 
I loved you dearly, but we notaries have a certain 
perspicacity, and I soon perceived I was not agreea- 
ble to you. It is my fault! Another has been 
more skilful than I. Well! I have come to confess 
openly and above-board, that I cherish a sincere 
affection for your sister Felicie. Treat me as a 
brother, use my purse, take what you require ! The 
more you take, the more friendship you will show 
me. I am entirely yours, without interest, please to 


The House of Claes. 


257 


observe, either at twelve or at a quarter per cent. 
Let me be thought worthy of Felicie, and I shall be 
content. Pardon my errors, they arise from business 
habits ; my heart is good, and I would throw myself 
into the Scarpe rather than not make my wife 
happy.” 

“That is all very well, cousin,” said Margaret ; 
“but my sister depends upon herself and our father.” 
^ “ f know that, my dear cousin,” returned the 

notary ; “ but you are the mother of the whole family, 
and I have nothing more at heart than to make you 
the judge of mmel' 

This style of speaking gives a sufficiently clear idea 
of the wit of the honest notary. At a later period,. 
Pierquin became celebrated for his reply to the 
commandant of the camp of Saint Omer, who had 
requested his presence at a military fete, and which 
was thus conceived : “ Monsieur Pierquin-Claes de 

Molina-Nourho, Mayor of the city of Douay, Knight of 
the Legion of Honor, will have THAT of accepting^ etcl' 

Margaret acc^ted tj^e notary’s assistance, but only 
in what concerned his profession, so that she might 
not compromise either her womanly dignity, the 
future of her sister, or the decision of her father. 
That same day she confided her sister to the care of 
Martha and Josette, who devoted themselves, body 
and soul, to their young mistress, by aiding her in all 
her economical plans. 

Margaret set out immediately for Waignies, where 
she commenced her operations, which were ably 


258 


The Alchemist, or 


directed by Pierquin. Zeal had been figured out in 
the notary’s mind as an excellent speculation ; his 
cares, his labors, were, in a manner, investments he 
was unwilling to spare. In the first place he sought 
to save Margaret the trouble of clearing and plough- 
ing the lands that were intended for the farms. He 
found out three sons of rich farmers who wished to 
establish themselves ; he seduced them by the prom- 
ise the richness of the lands held out to them, and 
succeeded in making them take the three farms that 
were to he constructed upon a lease. In considera- 
tion of the abandonment of rent for three years, the 
farmers agreed to pay ten thousand francs rent the 
fourth year, twelve thousand the sixth, and fifteen 
thousand during the remainder of the lease ; to dig 
the drains, lay out the plantations, and purchase the 
cattle. 

Whilst the farms were being built, the farmers 
came to clear the lands. Four years after Balthazar’s 
'departure, Margaret had already nearly redeemed 
the fortune of her brother and sister.' Two hundred 
thousand francs sufficed for all the buildings. 
Neither help nor advice were withheld from this 
courageous girl, whose conduct excited the admira- 
tion of the whole city! Margaret overlooked the 
buildings, and the execution of the agreements and 
leases, with that good sense, that activity, that con- 
stancy, which women know how to display when 
they are animated by a lofty sentiment. 

In the fifth year, she was able to devote thirty 


The House of Claes, 


259 


thousand francs of the rent yielded by the farms, by 
the dividends of her brother, and by the proceeds of 
her father’s property, to the extinction of mortgages, 
and to repairs of the injuries which Balthazar’s 
passion had done to the house. The redemption of 
the debts would from that time go on rapidly, from 
the diminution of the interest. Emmanuel de Solis 
offered Margaret, too, the hundred thousand francs 
left of his uncle’s property, which she had not 
employed, adding to them twenty thousand francs 
of his own savings, so that in the third year of her 
administration she was able to discharge a consider- 
able amount of debts. This life of courage, priva- 
tions and zeal, was not relaxed for five years ; but 
all went on fortunately and successfully under the 
administration and influence of Margaret. 

Gabriel, who, through the influence of his grand- 
uncle, had become an engineer in the department of 
Roads and Bridges, made a rapid fortune in a canal 
he was constructing ; and made himself agreeable 
to his cousin. Mademoiselle Conyncks, whom her 
father adored, and who was one of the richest heir- 
esses in the two Flanders. In 1824, the Claes prop- 
erty was free, and the house in the rue de Paris 
had repaired its losses. Pierquin now formally 
demanded Felicie’s hand of Balthazar, as did M. de 
Solis that of Margaret. 

Early in the month of January, 1825, Margaret 
and M. Conyncks set out to bring the exiled father 
back. His return was anxiously desired by all, and 


26 o 


The Alchemisty or 


he had given in his resignation in order to reside in 
the midst of his family, whose happiness was about 
to receive his sanction. In the absence of Margaret, 
who had often expressed regret at not being able to 
fill the empty frames of the gallery and the recep- 
tion-rooms against the day when her father should 
regain possession of his house, Pierquin and M. de 
Solis formed a plan with Felicie to prepare a sur- 
prise for Margaret, — a plan which should make the 
younger sister, in some sort, contribute to the 
restoration of the family mansion. 

Both had purchased several beautiful pictures, and 
they offered them to her for the decoration of 
the gallery. M. Conyncks had had the same 
idea. Wishing to prove to Margaret the satisfac- 
tion her noble conduct and her zeal in carrying 
out the mission bequeathed to her by her mother 
gave him, he had taken measures to have fifty of his 
finest pictures, and some of those which Balthazar 
had lately sold, brought to Douay, so that the Claes 
gallery was completely refurnished. 

Margaret had been several times to see her father, 
accompanied by her sister or Jean; on each occa- 
sion she had found him more and more changed ; 
but, on her last visit, old age had begun to manifest 
itself in Balthazar by alarming symptoms, aug- 
mented, no doubt, by the parsimony with which he 
lived, that he might employ the greater part of his 
salary in making experiments which always deceived 
his hopes. Although only sixty-five years old, he 


The House of Claes. 


261 


looked eighty. His eyes were deeply buried in 
their sockets ; his eyebrows were white, and a few 
scattered hairs thinly covered the back of his head ; 
he allowed his beard to grow, and cut it with 
scissors when it annoyed him ; he was bent like an 
old vine-dresser, and the untidiness of his attire had 
resumed a character of want which decrepitude 
rendered hideous. 

Although strong thoughts still animated that 
grand countenance, the features of which were no 
longer to be traced beneath the wrinkles, yet the 
fixity of his look, an air of despair, a constant uneasi- 
ness, stamped it with the diagnostics of madness, or 
rather of all kinds of madness together. Sometimes 
there shone upon it a hope which gave Balthazar 
the expression of a monomaniac ; sometimes impa- 
tience at not being able to divine a secret which pre- 
sented itself to him like a will-o’-the-wisp, gave it 
the symptoms of fury ; then, all at once, a burst of 
laughter betrayed actual lunacy, whilst the greater 
part of the time the most complete depression 
summed up all the shades of passion in the dull 
melancholy of the idiot. 

However fugitive and imperceptible these expres- 
sions might be for strangers, they were, unfortu- 
nately, too evident for those who had known a Claes 
sublime in goodness, great in heart, handsome of 
countenance, and of whom nothing existed but now 
and then a vestige. Grown old, and worn out by 
continual labor, like his master, Lemulquinier had 


262 


The Alchemist^ or 


not had, like Balthazar, to support the fatigues of 
thought ; so his countenance presented a singular 
mixture of uneasiness and of admiration for his mas- 
ter, which it was easy to mistake. Though he 
listened to his least word with respect, and followed 
his movements with a sort of tenderness, he took 
the same sort of care of the savant that a mother takes 
of her child ; he often had the appearance of pro- 
tecting him, because he really did protect him in the 
vulgar necessities of life, of which Balthazar never 
took the least heed. 

These two old men, absorbed in one idea, confid- 
ing in the reality of their hopes, agitated by the 
same breath — the one representing the envelope and 
the other the soul of their common existence — 
formed a spectacle at once horrible and affecting. 
When Margaret and M. Conyncks arrived, they 
found Balthazar established at an inn ; his successor 
had not kept him waiting, and had already taken 
possession of the place. 

Amidst the preoccupations of science, a longing 
to revisit his home, his house and his family, 
agitated Balthazar. His daughter’s letters told him 
that things had gone well : he dreamed of crowning 
his career by a series of experiments which would 
lead him at length to the solution of his problem ; 
he, therefore, awaited the coming of Margaret with 
excessive impatience. She threw herself into her 
father’s arms weeping with joy. This time she 
came to seek the recompense of a painful life, and a 


The House of Claes. 


263 


pardon for her domestic glory. She felt herself 
criminal after the manner of great men who violate 
liberty to save their country. But when she con- 
templated her father, she shuddered at the changes 
that had taken place in him since her last visit. 
Conyncks shared the secret alarm of his niece, and 
insisted upon removing his cousin to Douay as soon 
as possible, where the influence of home might 
restore him to reason and health. 

After the first effusions of feeling, which were more 
lively on the part of Balthazar than Margaret 
expected, he paid her certain very singular atten- 
tions ; he expressed regret at receiving her in the 
mean apartment of an inn, he made inquiries about 
her tastes, and asked what refreshment she would 
take, with all the fond assiduity of a lover ; his 
behavior, in short, was that of a criminal anxious to 
propitiate his judge. Margaret knew her father so 
well that she divined the motive of this tenderness, 
by supposing he might have some small debts in the 
city which he wished to pay before his departure. 
She observed her father for some time, and saw the 
human heart laid bare. Balthazar was morally 
shrunken. The consciousness of his abasement, the 
isolation in which science left him, had rendered him 
timid and childish in all questions foreign to his 
favorite occupations ; his eldest daughter exerted 
authority over him ; the remembrance of her past 
zeal, of the strength she had displayed, the conscious- 
ness of the power he had allowed her to take, the 


264 


The Alchemist, or 


fortune of which she was mistress, and the undefina- 
ble feelings which had possessed him from the day 
he had abdicated his already compromised paternity', 
had made her appear greater to him daily. 

Conyncks was nothing in Balthazar’s eyes ; he 
saw nothing but his daughter, and thought only of 
her whilst appearing to dread her, as certain hus- 
bands stand in awe of the superior women who have 
subjugated them. When he raised his eyes towards 
her, Margaret saw, with regret, an expression of 
fear, resembling that of a child who knows he is 
in fault. The noble girl was unable to reconcile 
the majestic and terrible expression of that bald 
head, devastated by science and labor, with the 
puerile smile, the obsequious servility on Balthazar’s 
lips and physiognomy. She felt wounded by the 
contrast this grandeur and this littleness presented, 
and resolved to use all her influence to enable her 
father to recover his lost dignity, against the solemn 
day when he should again appear in the bosom of 
his family. She seized the first moment when they 
were alone to whisper in his ear: “Do you owe 
anything here ?” 

Balthazar colored, and replied with an embar- 
rassed air : “ I don’t know, but Lemulquinier will 
tell you. The good fellow is better acquainted 
with my affairs than I am myself.” 

Margaret rung for the valet, and when he came, 
she almost involuntarily studied the countenances 
of the two old men. 


The House of Claes, 


265 


“Do you want anything, sir?” asked Lemul 
quinier. 

Margaret, who was all pride and nobility, felt 
her heart contract as she noticed, by the tone and 
manner of the valet, that some improper familiarity 
existed between her father and the companion of his 
labors. 

“ My father cannot, without your assistance, give 
me an account of what he owes here,” said Margaret. 

“ Master,” replied Lemulquinier, “ owes — ” 

At these words, Balthazar gave the valet a sign of 
intelligence, which Margaret saw, and which humil- 
iated her. 

“ Tell me all my father owes!” she cried. 

“ Master owes three thousand francs to an apothe- 
cary who sells groceries at wholesale, and who has 
furnished us with caustic, potash, lead, zinc and resol- 
vents.” 

“ Is that all ?” said Margaret. 

Balthazar made another affirmative sign to Lemul- 
quinier, who, fascinated by his master, replied : 

“ Y — e — s, mademoiselle.” 

“Very well,” she said; “I will give you the 
amount.” 

Balthazar embraced his daughter, joyfully exclaim- 
ing, “ You are an angel, my child 1” 

And he breathed more freely, looking at her with 
a less melancholy eye ; but, notwithstanding this joy, 
Margaret easily perceived a profound anxiety upon 
his countenance, and guessed that these three thous- 


266 


The Alchemist, or 


and francs only constituted the more clamorous 
debts of the laboratory. 

“ Be candid, my dear father,” she said, allowing 
him to place her on his knee. “ Do you owe more ? 
Tell me all ; return home without having a cause for 
fear, amid the general joy.” 

“ My dear Margaret,” he said, taking her hands 
and kissing them with a grace which appeared to be 
a vestige of his youth, “you will scold me — ” 

“ No,” she said. 

“ Truly?” he replied, allowing a gesture of child- 
ish joy to escape him. “I will tell you all, then ; 
will you pay — ’’ 

“Yes,” she answered, endeavoring to repress the 
tears which rose to her eyes. 

“ Well, I owe — oh ! I dare not — ” 

“ Come, tell me, father !” 

“ It’s a good deal.” 

She clasped her hands with an expression of 
despair. 

“ I owe Protez and Chiffreville thirty thousand 
francs.” 

“ Thirty thousand francs,” she returned, “ is the 
amount of my savings ; but I take pleasure in offer- 
ing them to you,” she added, kissing his brow res- 
pectfully. 

He rose from his seat, took his daughter in his 
arms, and went all round the chamber, tossing her 
up like a child ; then he sank upon his chair again, 
crying : “ My dear child, you are a treasure of love ! 


The House of Claes. 


267 


I was hardly alive. The Chiffrevilles have written 
me three threatening letters, and were going to 
proceed against me — me, who have made their for- 
tune for them.” - 

“ My dear father,” said Margaret, with an accent 
of despair, “ are you still at work, seeking — ” 

Still at work !” he replied, with the smile of 
insanity. “ Ay, and I shall find, you will see. If 
you knew where we are !” 

Whom do you mean by we f ” 

‘‘ Oh, I am speaking of Lemulquinier ; he under- 
stands me at last ; he is very fond of me. Poor fel- 
low ! he is so devoted !” 

The entrance of Cony neks interrupted the conver- 
sation. Margaret made her father a sign to be silent, 
fearing that he might lower himself in the eyes of 
their uncle. She was terrified at the ravages con- 
centration in one idea had made in that grand intelli- 
gence, absorbed in the search of a problem that 
was perhaps insolvable. Balthazar, who doubtless 
saw nothing beyond his furnaces, had no idea of the 
liberation of his fortune. 

The next day they set out for Flanders. The 
journey was long enough to allow Margaret to 
acquire confused hints upon the situation of her 
father and Lemulquinier. Had the valet obtained 
that ascendency over his master which uneducated 
people are capable of assuming over lofty intellects, 
when they feel themselves necessary, and when, 
from concession to concession, they proceed steadily 


268 


The ' A Ichemist, or 


on towards domination, with the persistency which 
arises from a fixed idea ? Or else, had the master 
contracted that affection for the valet which springs 
from habit, like that which a workman entertains 
for his creating tool, or an Arab for his liberating 
courser ? Margaret studied into several matters, by 
which to decide, proposing to withdraw her father 
from the humiliating yoke, if it were real. 

As she passed through Paris, she remained a few 
days to discharge her father’s debts, and to beg the 
manufacturers of chemical products and instruments 
not to send anything more to Douay without giving 
her notice of what Claes wanted. She prevailed upon 
her father to change his dress and resume the habits, in 
matters of costume, proper in a man of his rank. 
This external restoration gave Balthazar a sort of 
physical dignity which augured well for a change of 
ideas ; and, as soon as possible, the daughter, happy, 
in anticipation, in the surprises which awaited her 
father in his old home, set out for Douay. 

Three leagues from that city, Balthazar was met 
by his daughter Felicie, on horseback, escorted by 
her two brothers, Emmanuel, Pierquin, and the 
intimate friends of the three families. The journey 
had necessarily diverted the chemist from his habit- 
ual thoughts, the sight of Flanders had acted upon 
his heart ; so that when he perceived the joyous 
troop formed by his family and friends, he experi- 
enced emotions so lively that his eyes filled with 
tears, his voice trembled, his eyelids reddened, and 


The House of Claes. 


269 


he embraced his children so passionately and was so 
loath to leave them, that the spectators of the scene 
were moved to tears. 

As soon as he saw his house again, he became very 
pale ; he sprang out of the carriage with the agility 
of a young man ; he seemed to inhale the air of the 
court with delight, and surveyed all the details with 
a pleasure which every gesture betrayed ; he drew 
his tall person up, and his countenance looked young 
again. When he entered the parlor, the tears came 
into his eyes as he saw, by the exactness with which 
his daughter had replaced the ancient silver candle 
sticks he had sold, that their disasters were entirely 
repaired. 

A splendid breakfast was served in the dining- 
room, the shelves of which had been refilled with 
curiosities and plate, of a value at least equal to that 
of the articles formerly there. Although this family 
meal lasted a long time, it was scarcely sufficient for 
the narratives Balthazar required every one of his 
children to give. The shock communicated to his 
mind by this return caused him to take the greatest 
interest in the happiness of his family ; and he 
showed himself their father. He resumed the 
grandeur of his former manners. In the first 
moments he gave himself up to the joy of possession, 
without asking himself by what means he had recov- 
ered what he had lost. His joy, therefore, was 
entire and full. 

The breakfast over, the four children, the father. 


The Alchemist, or 


270 


de Solis and Pierquin passed into the parlor, where 
Balthazar saw, and not without uneasiness, a pile of 
stamped papers which a clerk had laid upon a table 
before which he stood, as if ready to assist his mas- 
ter. The children sat down, whilst Balthazar, in a 
state of astonishment, remained standing before the 
chimney-piece. 

“This,” said Pierquin, “is M. Claes’ account of 
his guardianship of his children. Although it may 
not be very amusing,” he added, laughing after the 
fashion of notaries, who generally assume a jesting 
tone when speaking of the most serious matters, 
“ you must absolutely listen to it.” 

Although circumstances justified this speech, 
Claes, whose conscience reminded him of his past 
life, took it as a reproach, and a frown contracted 
his brow. The clerk commenced reading. The 
astonishment of Balthazar went on increasing as the 
document proceeded. In the first place, it was there 
shown that the fortune of his wife amounted, at the 
moment of her decease, to about sixteen hundred 
thousand francs, and the conclusion of the account 
gave each of his children a clear entire share, as the 
administration of a good and careful father would 
have done. It resulted from this that the house was 
free from mortgage, that Balthazar was in his own 
home, and that his rural property was equally unen- 
cumbered. When the various deeds were signed, 
Pierquin presented the receipts for the sums formerly 
borrowed, and the releases of the bonds which had 


The House of Claes. 


271 


burthened the property. At this moment, Balthazar, 
who recovered at once the honor of the man, the life 
of the father and the consideration of the citizen, 
sank into a chair, and looked round for Margaret, 
who, from one of the sublime delicacies of woman’s 
nature, had stolen away from the scene on the pre- 
text of looking after the preparations for the fete. 

Every member of the family comprehended the 
thoughts of the old man at the moment when his 
moist eyes feebly demanded his daughter, whom all 
beheld, with the vision of the soul, as an angel of 
strength and light. Gabriel went to look for Mar- 
garet. On hearing his daughter’s step, Balthazar 
ran to clasp her in his arms. 

“ Father,” she said, at the foot of the stairs where 
the old man had met her, “ let me implore you not 
to diminish your sacred authority. Thank me before 
all the family for having carried out your intentions 
satisfactorily, and be thus the sole author of any 
good that may have been effected.” 

Balthazar raised his eyes to heaven, looked at his 
daughter, crossed his arms, and said, after a pause, 
during which his face resumed an expression which 
his children had not seen for ten years : “ Why are 
you not here, Pepita, to love and admire your child !” 
He pressed Margaret closely to his heart, without 
being able to utter another word, and returned to 
the parlor. “ My children,” he said, with that noble- 
ness of bearing which had formerly made him one 
of the most imposing of men, “ we all owe thanks 


272 


The Alchemist y or 


and gratitude to my daughter Margaret for the wis^ 
dom and courage with which she has carried out my 
intentions and executed my plans, when, too much 
absorbed by my scientific labors, I placed in her 
hands the reins of our domestic administration.” 

“Well, we will now read the marriage contracts,” 
said Pierquin, looking at his watch. “ But I cannot 
meddle with these documents, as the law forbids me 
to draw them up for my relations or myself ; my 
uncle Raparlier will be here directly.” 

At this moment the friends of the family invited 
to the dinner given to celebrate the return of M. 
Claes and the signing of the contracts, began to 
arrive, whilst the servants brought in the wedding 
presents. The party quickly increased, and became 
as imposing in the quality of the persons, as it was 
splendid in the richness of the toilettes. The three 
families united by the happiness of their children, 
rivaled each other in splendor. 

In a few minutes the parlor was filled with the 
tasteful presents offered to the happy couples. Gold 
flowed and sparkled ; rich stuffs unfolded. Cashmere 
shawls, necklaces and bracelets excited so much 
delight in those who received and those who gave, 
half-childish joy was so clearly painted on every 
face, that the value of these magnificent presents was 
forgotten even by the indifferent, who are too fre- 
quently occupied in calculating it from curiosity. 

The ceremony usual in the Claes family for these 
solemnities now commenced. It was the custom for 


The Hotise of Claes, 273 

the father and mother only to be seated, whilst the 
rest of the assembly remained standing at a distance 
in front of them. At the left of the parlor, on the 
garden side, were Gabriel and Mademoiselle de 
Conyncks ; near them, M. de Solis and Margaret, 
her sister and Pierquin. At a few paces from the 
three couples, Balthazar and Conyncks, the only per- 
sons who were seated, took their places, each in an 
arm-chair, near the notary who had replaced Pier- 
quin. Jean stood behind his father. Twenty ladies, 
elegantly dressed, and several gentlemen chosen 
from among the nearest relations of the Pierquins, 
the Conyncks, and the Claeses ; the mayor of Douay, 
who was to marry the parties ; the twelve witnesses, 
taken from among the most intimate friends of the 
three families, and of whom the chief justice of the 
royal court was one — all, even to the curate of Saint 
Peter’s, remained standing, and formed, on the court 
side, an imposing circle. This homage rendered by 
all the assembly to the paternal character, which at 
this instant beamed with royal majesty, gave an 
antique cast to the scene. It was the only moment 
for sixteen years in which Balthazar forgot the 
search for the Absolute. 

M. Raparlier, the notary, asked Margaret and her 
sister if all the persons invited to witness the cere- 
mony and to the dinner, had arrived ; and upon their 
reply in the affirmative, he returned and took up the 
marriage contract of Margaret and M. de Solis, 
which was the first to be read, when all at once, the 


The Alchemist, or 


274 


door of the parlor was thrown open, and Lemul- 
quinier appeared, with a face radiant with joy. 

“Master! Master!” 

Balthazar cast a despairing look at Margaret, made 
her a sign, and led her into the garden. 

“ I did not dare to tell you, my child,” said the 
father to the daughter ; “but since you have done so 
much for me, you will save me from this last mis- 
fortune. Lemulquinier lent me, for a final experi- 
ment which did not succeed, twenty thousand francs, 
the result of his savings. The wretch has doubtless 
come to claim them, on learning that I have become 
rich again ; give them to him at once. Ah, my 
angel ! you owe your father to his care, for he alone 
consoled me in my troubles; he alone has faith in 
me yet. Certainly, but for him I should be dead.” 

“Master! Master!” shouted Lemulquinier. 

“ Well !” said Balthazar, turning round. 

“A diamond !” 

Claes sprang into' the parlor on perceiving a dia- 
mond in the hands of his valet, who said in a low 
voice: 

“ I have been to the laboratory.” 

The chemist, who had forgotten everything, cast 
a look upon the old Fleming, and this look could only 
be translated by the words. So you have been to the 
laboratory before me ! 

“ And I found,” continued the valet, “ this diamond 
in the evaporating-dish which communicated with 
the pile which we left to do as it liked, and see what 


The House of Claes. 275 

it has done, sir,” and he exhibited a white diamond 
of an octahedral shape, whose brilliancy attracted 
the astonished looks of the assembly. 

“ My children, my friends !” said Balthazar, “ par- 
don my old servant, pardon me ! This will drive me 
mad ! A chance of seven years has produced, with- 
out me, a discovery which I sought for during six- 
teen years. How, I cannot say. I left some sul- 
phurate of carbon under the influence of a voltaic 
pile, the action of which ought to have been watched 
every day. Well, during my absence, the power of 
God has burst forth in my laboratory, without my 
being there to witness its progressive effects ! Is 
not that frightful? Cursed exile ! Cursed chance! 
Alas ! if I had watched this long, this slow, this sud- 
den, I do not know what to call it, whether crystal- 
ization or transformation, — in short, this miracle — 
well, my children would be richer than they are. 
Although it is not the solution of the problem I am 
seeking for, at least the first rays of my glory would 
have shone upon my country, and this moment, 
which our satisfied affections render so glowing with 
happiness, would have been rendered still warmer 
by the siin of science.” 

Every one preserved silence in the presence of 
this man. The incoherent words thus drawn from 
him by grief were too genuine not to be sublime. 

All at once, Balthazar drove back his despair to 
the bottom of his heart, cast upon the assembl/ a 
majestic glance which penetrated to their souls, took 


276 


The Alchemist y or 


the diamond and presented it to Margaret, saying : 
“ It belongs to you, my angel !” He then dismissed 
Lemulquinier with a wave of the hand, and turning 
to the notary : said, “ Go on !” 

This speech excited in the guests that sort of 
shudder which, in certain parts. Talma called forth 
among the attentive throngs that flocked to hear him. 

Balthazar seated himself, saying, in a low voice : 
“ I must be nothing but a father to-day !” Margaret 
heard it, advanced, seized his hand, and kissed it 
respectfully. 

“ Never was there a man so great !” said Emman- 
uel, as his bride rejoined him ; “ never was man so 
self-contained ! any other would have gone mad !” 

The three contracts being read and signed, every 
one flocked round Balthazar to inquire in what 
manner the diamond had been produced, but he 
could give them no account of so strange an incident. 
He looked at his laboratory, and pointed to it with 
an expression of rage. 

“Yes, the fearful power due to the commotion of 
inflamed matter which, no doubt, makes metals and 
diamonds,” he said, “ manifested itself for an instant 
by chance.” 

“That chance is, doubtless, very natural,” said one 
of those people who think they can explain every- 
thing. “ The worthy man left some real diamond in 
the vessel ; it is one saved out of the number he has 
burned.” 


The House of Claes, 


277 


‘‘ Let us forget it,” said Balthazar to his friends ; 
“ I beg you not to say anything about it to-day.” 

Margaret took her father’s arm to lead him into 
the front house, where a sumptuous banquet awaited 
them. When he entered the gallery after all his 
guests, he found it furnished with pictures, and filled 
with beautiful and rare flowers. 

“ Pictures !” cried he, ‘‘pictures! and some of our 
old ones, too 1” 

He stopped, his brow became cloudy ; a shade of 
sadness passed over him ; he felt the weight of his 
faults by measuring the extent of his secret humilia- 
tion. 

“ All this is yours, father,” said Margaret, divin- 
ing the feelings which agitated Balthazar’s soul. 

“ Angel whom celestial spirits might applaud,” 
cried he, “ how many times have you redeemed your 
father’s life?” 

“ Dismiss this cloud from your brow, and do not 
entertain the least thought of sadness in your heart,” 
she replied, “ and you will recompense me beyond 
my hopes. I have just been thinking of Lemul- 
quinier, dear father. The few words you said in 
regard to him, make me esteem him ; and I confess 
I had formed a wrong opinion of him. Think no 
more about what you owe him, he shall remain with 
you as an humble friend. Emmanuel has saved 
about sixty thousand francs ; we will give them to 
Lemulquinier. After having served you so well, he 
ought to be at his ease for the rest of his days. Do 


278 


The Alchemist y or 


not trouble yourself about us. M. de Solis and I 
shall have a calm and pleasant life, — a life without 
pomp ; we can, therefore, do without this sum till 
you are able to return it to us.” 

Ah, my daughter, do not abandon me ! Be still 
the good genius of )^our father.” 

On entering the reception-rooms, Balthazar found 
them restored and furnished as magnificently as they 
had formerly been. The guests soon repaired to the 
great dining-room, on the ground floor, by the grand 
staircase, every step of which was adorned with 
flowering shrubs. Silver plate of elegant form, 
Gabriel’s present to his father, attracted great atten- 
tion, as did the luxury of the table, which appeared 
extraordinary even to the principal inhabitants of a 
city where such luxury is traditionally the fashion. 
The servants of M. Conyncks and of Pierquin 
assisted the Claes’ household as attendants at this 
sumptuous repast. 

On finding himself at the head of the table, sur- 
rounded by relations, friends, and faces beaming 
with lively and sincere joy, Balthazar, with Lemul- 
quinier behind him, evinced an emotion so conta- 
gious, that every one was silent, as people become 
silent in the presence of great joys or great sorrows. 

Beloved children,” he cried, ‘‘you have killed 
the fatted calf on the return of the prodigal father.” 

This speech, by which the savant did himself 
justice, and which, perhaps, prevented his being 
judged more severely, was pronounced so nobly. 


. The House of Claes. 279 

that every one was affected' to tears; but this was 
the last expression of melancholy, as joy gradually 
assumed the animated character which distinguishes 
family festivals. 

After dinner, the principal inhabitants of the city 
came to the just opening ball, which responded to 
the classic splendor of the restored House of Claes. 
The three marriages were celebrated shortly after, 
and gave occasion to fetes, balls and entertainments 
which, for several months, drew old Claes into the 
vortex of the world. His eldest son went to settle 
on an estate of M. Conyncks’, near Cambrai, the 
father being unwilling to be separated from his 
daughter. Madame Pierquin was also obliged to 
quit the paternal roof, to do the honors of the hotel 
Pierquin had built, where he wished to live in hand- 
some style ; for he had sold his notaryship, and his 
uncle Des Racquets, who had died recently, had left 
him his slowly accumulated wealth. Jean set out 
for Paris, where he was to finish his education. 

The de Solis were thus left alone with their father, 
who gave them the back quarter of the house, 
inhabiting himself a second story of the front. Mar- 
garet continued to watch over her father’s external 
comforts, and was greatly assisted in this delightful 
duty by Emmanuel. The noble girl received the most 
enviable of crowns from the hands of love, one that 
is woven by felicity and whose beauty is preserved 
by constancy. In fact, never did a couple better 
present the image of that complete, avowed, pure 


28 o 


The Alchemist^ or 


bliss, which all women cherish in their dreams. The 
union of these two beings, so courageous in the 
trials of life, and who had loved so holily, excited 
the respectful admiration of the whole city. 

M. de Solis, who had been some time before made 
inspector-general of the university, resigned his 
office the better to enjoy his happiness, and to reside 
at Douay, where every one rendered such homage 
to his talents and character, that his name was, in 
advance, proposed for the suffrages of the electoral 
colleges, when he should be old enough to be sent 
as deputy to Paris. Margaret, who had shown so 
strong a character in adversity, became, under the 
influence of happiness, a gentle and charming woman. 
As for Claes himself, he was, during the year, cer- 
tainly very much absorbed, but, though he made 
several experiments that his income enabled him to 
pay for, he seemed to neglect his laboratory. 

Margaret, who wished to revive the old custom of 
the Claeses, gave her father, every month, a family 
fete, at which the Pierquins and the Conyncks were 
present, and received the high society of the city one 
evening in each week at a cafe, which became one of 
the most celebrated. Claes appeared at all these 
parties, and became so complacently a man of the 
world again, to please his eldest daughter, that his 
children had reason to believe he had renounced 
seeking a solution of his problem. Three years thus 
passed away. 

In 1828, an event favorable to Emmanuel’s inter- 


The House of Claes. 


281 


ests called him to Spain. Although, between him 
and the estates of the house of de Solis, there were 
three numerous branches, yet yellow fever, old age, 
failure in offspring, and all the caprices of fortune, 
conspired to make Emmanuel the last heir to the 
titles and rich possessions of his house. By one of 
those chances which are only improbable in books, 
the house of de Solis had acquired the countship of 
Nourho. Margaret was hot willing to be separated 
from her husband, who was to remain in Spain as 
long as his business should require his presence 
there. She was, besides, curious to see the chateau 
of Casa Real, where her mother had passed her 
infancy, and the city of Granada, the patrimonial 
cradle of the family of de Solis. She set out then, 
confiding the management of the household to the 
zeal of Martha, Josette and Lemulquinier, who had 
managed it so long. Margaret proposed to Bal- 
thazar to take him with them to Spain ; but he 
declined, alleging his great age as an excuse. The 
true ground of his refusal, however, was that he had 
certain fondly cherished experiments to make, which 
he flattered himself would realize all his hopes. 

The Count and Countess de Solis y Nourho were 
detained in Spain much longer than they expected. 
Margaret’s first child was born there. About the 
middle of the year 1830 they arrived at Cadiz, where 
they intended to embark and return to France 
through Italy ; but they there received a letter from 
Felicie, conveying sad news to her sister. During 


282 


The Alchemist, or 


the eighteen months of her absence, her father had 
again completely ruined himself ; Gabriel and Pier- 
quin were obliged to place a monthly stipend in 
Lemulquinier’s hands, to defray the household 
expenses. The old servant had again sacrificed his 
little property to his master. Balthazar would not 
see anybody, not even his children. Josette and 
Martha were dead. The coachman, the cook, and 
the other servants had been successively dismissed, 
and the horses and equipages sold. Although 
Lemulquinier preserved the most profound silence 
with regard to his master’s mode of living, there was 
great reason for believing that the thousand francs, 
given monthly by Gabriel Claes and Pierquin, were 
spent in experiments. 

The small quantity of provisions which Lemul- 
quinier procured at market, led to the supposition 
that the two old men contented themselves with the 
merest necessaries. In short, Gabriel and Pierquin 
had been obliged to pay the interest of sums the old 
man had borrowed, unknown to them, upon the 
paternal house, to prevent its being sold. Not one 
of his children had any influence over this man, who, 
at the age of seventy, displayed extraordinary energy 
in attaining the objects of his wishes, even the most 
absurd. Margaret alone might, perhaps, regain the 
control she had formerly exercised over Balthazar, 
and Felicie implored her sister to return as quickly 
as possible, as she feared her father might have 
signed more notes of hand. Gabriel Conyncks and 


The House of Claes, 


283 


Pierquin, terrified at the continuance of a madness 
which had already swallowed up about seven mil- 
lions to no purpose, had determined to pay no more 
of the debts contracted by Claes. 

This letter changed the course of Margaret’s 
intended journey ; she immediately took the shortest 
route to Douay. Her economy and her new fortune 
enabled her to discharge the debts of her father once 
more, without difficulty; but she was anxious to do 
more ; she wished to obey her mother, and not allow 
Balthazar to descend in dishonor to his grave. She 
felt assured that she alone had the power to exercise 
an authority over this old man, to prevent his con- 
tinuing his work of ruin at an age when no produc- 
tive toil could be expected from his weakened facul- 
ties. But she was desirous of controlling him with- 
out offending him, that she might not imitate the 
children of Sophocles, in case her father should 
approach the scientific object for which he had sacri- 
ficed so much. 

M. and Madame de Solis reached Flanders towards 
the close of September, 1831, and arrived at Douay 
in the morning. Margaret desired to be driven 
straight to the house, in the rue de Paris, but found 
it shut up. The bell was violently rung, but no one 
answered. A tradesman came forward from his shop 
door, to which the noise of the carriages of M. de 
Solis and his suite had attracted him. Many persons 
came to their windows to hail the return of a family 
so beloved by all the city, attracted still further by a 


284 


The Alchemist, or 


vague curiosity concerning the events the return of 
Margaret was likely to bring to light. The shop- 
keeper told the valet of M. de Solis, that Claes had 
gone out about an hour before ; M. Lemulquinier 
had doubtless taken his master to walk on the ram- 
parts. Margaret sent for a locksmith to force open 
the door, to avoid the scene likely to ensue from her 
father’s resistance, if, as Felicie had written, he were 
to refuse to admit her into the house. 

In the mean time Emmanuel went in search of the 
old man, to announce the arrival of his daughter, • 
whilst his valet hastened to inform M. and Madame 
Pierquin. The door was opened in a moment. 
Margaret went into the parlor to show the servants 
where to place her luggage, and was horror-struck 
to find the walls as bare as if fire had swept them. 
The admirable wood-carvings of Van-Huysium and 
the portrait of the president had been sold, it was 
said, to Lord Spencer. The dining-room was empty, 
there being nothing in it but two old rush-bottomed 
chairs and a common table, upon which Margaret 
shuddered to see two plates, two bowls, two silver 
spoons, and the remains of a red herring which 
Claes and Lemulquinier had, doubtless, just shared 
between them. 

She rushed from one apartment to another, and all 
presented the same desolate spectacle she had beheld 
in the parlor and dining-room. The idea of the 
Absolute had gone through the house like a’ confla- 
gration. The furniture of her father’s room con- 


The House of Claes, 


285 

sisted of a bed, a chair and a table, upon which stood 
a mean brass candle-stick, in the socket of which was 
the end of a candle of the poorest sort. So com- 
pletely had this room been stripped, that there was 
not even a curtain to the windows. Articles of the 
smallest value, even the kitchen utensils, were sold. 
Actuated by the curiosity which never abandons us, 
even in misfortune, Margaret entered Lemulquinier’s 
room, and found it quite as bare as her father’s. In 
a half-open table-drawer she lound a pawn-broker’s 
ticket which attested that the valet had pledged his 
watch a few days before. She ran to the laboratory, 
and found the room as full of scientific instruments 
as in times past. Lastly, she caused the door of her 
own apartment to be opened ; here her father had 
touched nothing ! 

At the first glance Margaret burst into tears, and 
freely forgave her father. In the midst of his devas- 
tating fury he had been stopped by his feelings as a 
father, and by the gratitude he owed his daughter ! 
This proof of tenderness, received at a moment when 
the despair of Margaret was at its height, produced 
one of those moral reactions against which the cold- 
est hearts are powerless. 

She went down to the parlor, and awaited the 
coming of her father in a state of anxiety which her 
fears frightfully increased. How was she to find 
him ? Destroyed, decrepit, suffering, weakened by 
fasts undergone from pride? Would he even be in 
possession of his reason? Tears filled her eyes, 


286 


The Alchemist, or 


without her perceiving them, as she looked around 
on this devastated sanctuary. The image of her 
whole life, her efforts, her useless precautions, her 
childhood, her happy and yet unhappy mother, every- 
thing, even to the sight of her little Joseph who smiled 
at this picture of desolation, composed a poem of 
heart-rending melancholy. 

But although she foresaw misfortunes, she did not 
foresee the end which was to croAvn the life of her 
father, a life at once so imposing and so miserable. 
The condition of M. Claes was a secret to no one. 
To the shame of humanity, be it said, there were not 
in Douay two generous hearts to render honor to 
his perseverance as a man of genius. Throughout 
society Balthazar was a man to be shunned, a bad 
father, who had wasted six fortunes, who had con- 
sumed millions, and who was seeking for the philoso- 
pher’s stone in the nineteenth century — that century 
so enlightened, that incredulous century, that cen- 
tury, etc., etc. ; they calumniated him by degrading 
him with the title of alchemist, by saying, under his 
very nose, He wants to make gold !” What eulogies 
did they not utter of this century, in which, as in all 
others, talent expires beneath an indifference as 
brutal as that of the times in which Dante, Cervantes 
and Tasso died? The people comprehend the crea- 
tions of genius even more slowly than kings. 

These opinions had imperceptibly spread from the 
upper society of Douay into the bourgeoisie, and 
from the bourgeoisie into the lower classes. The 


The House of Claes, 


287 


septuagenarian chemist excited, therefore, a pro- 
found sentiment of pity among well-bred people, a 
scoffing curiosity in the populace, two expressions 
big with contempt and with that ‘‘Woe to the van- 
quished !” with which great men are -crushed by the 
masses when they see them unfortunate. Many 
persons stopped in front of Claes’ house to point out 
the round window of the laboratory, where so much 
gold and coal had been consumed. When Balthazar 
passed through the streets he was pointed at with 
the finger; often, unknown to him, a vulgar jest or 
an expression of contemptuous pity escaped the lips 
of a vagabond or a child ; but Lemulquinier took 
care to translate them as expressions of admiration, 
and was able to deceive him with impunity, for 
though Balthazar’s eyes had preserved that sublime 
lucidity which the habit of grand thoughts gave them, 
his sense of hearing was very much weakened. 

In the eyes of many of the peasants, of the vulgar 
and the superstitious, this old man thus became a 
sorcerer. The noble and grand House of Claes was 
called in the suburbs and in the country, the Devils 
house. There was nothing, not excepting the coun- 
tenance of Lemulquinier, which did not contribute 
to the ridiculous belief circulated with respect to his 
master. Thus, when the poor old Helot went to 
market for the provisions necessary for their subsist- 
ence, and which he selected from among the cheapest 
of all, he obtained nothing without some abuse 
thrown in; and was happy if some superstitious 


288 


The Alchemist, or 


sales-woman did not refuse to sell him his meager 
pittance, out of fear of being damned by contact 
with an imp of hell. 

The feelings of all this great city were thus gen- 
erally hostile to this grand old man and his compan- 
ion. The disorder of the dress of both added to 
this, for they went about clothed like the shame- 
faced poor, who preserve a decent exterior and hesi- 
tate to ask for charity. Sooner or later, it was 
probable these two old men might be insulted. 
Pierquin, feeling how disgraceful a public insult 
would be to the family, always sent two or three 
people to keep at a distance during his father-in-law’s 
walks to protect him, for the revolution of July had 
not contributed to render the people respectful. 

By one of those fatalities which cannot be 
explained, Claes and Lemulquinier, who had gone 
out early in the morning, had escaped the secret 
watch ordered by M. and Madame Pierquin, and 
were alone in the city. , As they returned from their 
walk, they sat themselves down in the sun upon a 
bench in the Place Saint Jacques, through which 
many children passed on their way to school or 
college. 

On perceiving these two old men at a distance, 
without defence, and evidently basking in the sun, 
the boys began to talk about them. Generally boys’ 
talk leads to laughter, and in this case, they went on 
from laughter to practical jokes without being aware 
of their cruelty. Seven or eight of those that had 



LEMULQUmiER THREATENS THE BOYS AVITH HIS CANE .— Fage 290 



I 



The House of Claes, n 


289 


arrived first, satisfied themselves with examining- 
the two old fellows, restraining their laughter with 
difficulty ; this attracted Lemulquinier’s attention. 

“ Look here,” said one, “ do you see that man with 
a head as bald as my knee ?” 

“ Yes.” 

“ Well ! he is a savant by birth.” 

“ My father says he makes gold,” said another, 

“ Which way? This way or that way?” asked a 
third, pointing with a mocking gesture to that part of 
himself which school-boys so often point at in sign 
of contempt. 

The youngest of the band, who had his basket full 
of provisions and was eating the butter off from a 
slice of bread, advanced innocently towards the 
bench, and said to Lemulquinier : “ Is it true, sir, 
that you make pearls and diamonds?” 

“Yes, my brave little fellow,” replied Lemulqui- 
nier, smiling, patting his cheek, “ we will give you 
some if you mind your book.” 

“ Give me some too ! give me some too !” was the 
general exclamation. 

All the boys now surrounded the two chemists like 
a flock of birds. Balthazar, absorbed in a medita- 
tion from which he was roused by their cries, gave 
a start of astonishment that excited a universal 
laugh. 

“Come, come, boys! be respectful to a great 
man !” said Lemulquinier. 

“ Get out, you old humbugs !” cried the boys. 


290 


The Alchemist, or 


“you are sorcerers! Yes, sorcerers! old sor- 
cerers !” 

Lemulquinier sprang up from the bench, and 
threatened the boys with his cane, while they ran 
away, picking up stones and mud. A laborer, who 
was eating his breakfast within a few rods of the 
bench, having seen Lemulquinier lift his cane to 
drive away the boys, fancied he had struck them, 
and came to their assistance with the terrible cry, 
“ Down with the sorcerers !” 

The boys, finding themselves supported, threw 
their projectiles, which hit the old men just as the 
Count de Solis and Pierquin’s servants came in sight ; 
but they did not arrive in time to prevent the boys 
from covering the old man and his valet with mud. 
The blow was struck ! Balthazar, whose facultiej= 
had been preserved up to that period by a chastit) 
natural to savants, with whom the preoccupation o[ 
a great discovery annihilates the passions, divined, 
by a phenomenon of intuition, the secret of this 
scene. His decrepit frame could not sustain the 
terrible reaction he experienced in the upper regions 
of his feelings, and he fell, struck by paralysis, into 
the arms of Lemulquinier, who carried him home 
on a litter, surrounded by his two sons-i;i-law and 
their servants. 

No power could prevent the populace of Douay 
from following the old man to the door of his house, 
where Margaret, Felicie, Gabriel and Jean were all 
standing in anxious expectation. Gabriel, informed 


The House of Claes. 


291 


of late events by his sister, had just arrived from 
Cambrai with his wife. It was a frightful spectacle 
— this return home of the old man, struggling less 
with death than with the terror of seeing his children 
penetrate the secret of his want. A bed was immedi- 
ately put up in the middle of the parlor, and every 
attention was lavished upon Balthazar, whose situa- 
tion, towards the end of the day, allowed hope to 
be entertained of his recovery. The paralysis, 
though skilfully combated, left him, nevertheless, for 
a considerable time in a state bordering on childish- 
ness. Though it ceased by degrees, it remained 
upon his tongue, which it had particularly affected, 
perhaps because anger had driven thither all the old 
man’s strength at the moment when he wished to 
apostrophize the boys. 

This scene had kindled a general indignation in 
the city. By a natural law till then unknown, one 
which directs the affections of the masses, the 
incident brought back all hearts to M. Claes. In a 
moment he became a great man, again he excited 
admiration, and won all the suffrages that had been 
withheld from him the evening before. Every one 
lauded his patience, his will, his courage, his genius. 
The magistrates wished to punish rigorously all who 
had participated in the offence ; but the evil was 
done, and the Claes family were the first to request 
that the affair should be forgotten. Margaret 
ordered the parlor to be refurnished, and its bare 
walls were soon adored with silken hangings. 


292 


The Alchemist, or 


When a few days after this event, the old man had 
recovered his faculties, and found himself in an ele- 
gant room, surrounded with everything that was 
necessary for his comfort, he exclaimed that his 
daughter Margaret must have returned. At that 
moment she entered the parlor. On seeing her, Bal- 
thazar faintly colored, his eyes became moist, but he 
shed no tears. He was able to press the hand of his 
daughter with his cold fingers, and communicate to 
the pressure all the feelings and all the ideas he was 
no longer able to utter. There was something holy 
and solemn in the farewell of the brain which still 
lived, of the heart reanimated by gratitude. Ex- 
hausted by his fruitless attempts, weary of a struggle 
with a gigantic problem, and perhaps desperate at 
the idea of the obscurity which would attend hfs 
name, this great man was soon about to depart ; all 
his children surrounded him with respectful affec- 
tion, so that his eyes were refreshed by images of 
abundance and wealth, and by the affecting spectacle 
presented by his noble family. He was uniformly 
affectionate in his looks, and thus manifested his 
sentiments ; his eyes suddenly acquired so great a 
variety of expression, that they spoke, as it were, a 
language of light, easy of comprehension. 

Margaret paid her father’s debts, and in a few days 
restored the House of Claes to such a degree of 
modern splendor as would banish every appearance 
of decay. She did not leave Balthazar’s bed-side, 
and sought to divine his thoughts and anticipate his 


The House of Claes. 


293 


slightest wants. Several months thus passed in those 
alternations for the better or the worst, which, in the 
old, indicate the struggle of life with death. His 
children repaired to the parlor, the room which he 
occupied, stayed there during the day, dining close 
to his bed, and only left him when he went to sleep. 
The amusement which pleased him most among 
those by which they sought to distract him, was the 
reading of the newspapers, rendered at that period 
highly interesting by passing political events. Claes 
listened attentively as Emmanuel de Solis read aloud 
at his side. 

Towards the close of the year 1832, Balthazar 
passed an extremely critical night. Doctor Pier- 
quin was sent for by the nurse, who was alarmed at 
a sudden change in the patient. The physician him- 
self thought it best to watch him, as he feared that 
he might, at any moment, expire in the throes of an 
internal struggle, the effects of which bore the 
character of a last agony. 

The old man made efforts of incredible energy to 
shake off the 'bonds of the paralysis ; he tried to 
speak and moved his tongue about without uttering 
a sound ; his flaming eyes projected his thoughts 
into the air ; his contracted features told of tortures 
beyond conception ; his fingers were convulsively 
and desperately agitated ; he sweated in huge drops. 
The children kissed their father in the morning with 
that affection which the fear of his approaching 


294 


The Alchemist, or 


death caused them to manifest every succeeding day 
with increasing warmth ; but he no longer mani- 
fested the satisfaction which these pledges of tender- 
ness usually gave him, 

Emmanuel, instructed by Pierquin, hastened to 
open the newspaper, to endeavor, by reading, to stay 
the internal spasms which were racking Balthazar’s 
frame. As he spread the paper out, he discovered 
these words: Discovery of the Absolute, which 
struck him violently, and he read Margaret an article 
relative to a law-suit concerning a sale of the Abso- 
lute made by a celebrated Polish mathematician. 
Though Emmanuel read the article in a low voice to 
Margaret, who had asked him to skip it, Balthazar 
heard it. 

Suddenly the dying man raised himself up on his 
clenched fists, gazed upon his terrified children with 
a look which struck them as a thunderbolt would 
have done ; the thin hair upon the back of his head 
moved weirdly about, his wrinkles worked and quiv- 
ered, his face became instinct with a spirit of fire ; the 
breath of inspiration passed over his features and 
made them sublime. He lifted up one hand, 
clenched in despair, and shrieked in piercing tones 
Archimedes’ famous cry : . “ Eureka ! I have dis- 
covered it!” He fell back upon the bed, which 
returned the dull, heavy sound of an inert, lifeless 
body. He died uttering a fearful groan, and his 
agonized eyes expressed, till the physician closed 


The House of Claes. 


295 


them, his regret at being unable to bequeath to 
Science the solution of the problem ; but the veil 
which shrouded it had Ueen too tardily torn from 
before it by the fleshless fingers of Death ! 


Paris, — September^ 1834. 


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Portrait. Price, $1.00. 


The New South ” is a work of national importance. It is an 
eloquent presentation of the changed condition of the South, the 
facts of her present growth and prosperity, and the resources which 
insure her magnificent destiny. Mr. Grady was an ardent pa- 
triot. His imagination was aflame with bright visions of the fu- 
ture of his beloved country. He had a mind which was equal to 
his great heart, and he undertook the splendid task of educating 
and enlightening his countrymen, and exhibiting tl e inexhaustible 
riches of her fertile soil, her beds of coal and iron, her great staple, 
the cotton of the world’s commerce, and her majestic water 
courses which furnish the power and assurance of empire. His 
book is his monument. 

Mr. Dyer’s character sketch of Henry W. Grady is an admir- 
able account of the great orator and journalist. It will be read 
with enthusiastic approval by every friend and admirer of Mr. 
Grady in the North as well as in the South. The author of 

Great Senators ” has grasped the character and presented the 
spiritual side of his subject with a power and truth which indicate 
a great writer. 

RETAIL PRICE OF ‘‘THE NEW SOUTH,” $i.oo. 

For sale by all Booksellers, or sent, postpaid, on receipt of 
price, by 

ROBERT BONNER’S SONS, Publishers, 

Corner William and Spruce Streets, New York. 


A UNIVERSALLY POPULAR BOOK. 


Great Senators of the United States 


FORTY YEARS AGO, 


By OLIVER DYER, 


Is, beyond all question, the most popular book that has been 
published in many years. Mr. Dyer was a reporter in the 
United States Senate in 1848 and 1849, and he gives vivid 
sketches of Calhoun, Benton, Clay, Webster, Gen. Houston, 
Jefferson Davis, William H. Seward, Martin Van Buren, and 
other distinguished statesmen of that period. 


EXTRACTS FROM NOTICES BY THE PRESS. 

These portraits are among the most graphic and luminous of their 
kind. They are studied and discriminated with careful nicety ; 
and they show the men both as they looked and as they felt and 
acted.— N. Y. Tribune. 

Among the recent contributions to American history none is 
worthy of more serious attention than a volume entitled “Great 
Senators,” by Oliver Dyer. It would be easy to fill columns with 
effective extracts from this volume. — N. Y. Sun. 

It is impossible to read Mr. Dyer’s reminiscences without being 
aware that the impressions he reports were genuine. No reader of 
the generation following his own can fail to derive from his re- 
miniscences a fresh view of the great men to whom this volume is 
devoted.— N. Y. Times. 

Oliver Dyer has written and Eobert Bonner’s Sons have published 
a handy volume as to “ Great Senators of the United States Forty 
Years Ago.” In it are told, as Dyer only could tell, stories of 
Calhoun, Benton, Clay, YVebster, Houston and .Jeff Davis, with 
personal recollections and delineations. Every library and every 
schoolhouse should have this enjoyable book.— N. Y. Press. 

“ Great Senators,” by Oliver Dyer, is a reminiscence of forty years 
ago, by one who is one of the veterans of the New York Press. 
The sketches here given are peculiarly valuable, as they are taken 
from nature, and, by a sudden flash, give an insight into character. 
We could fill columns with extracts from these delightful pages, 
but we shall give not one, because we prefer to send our readers to 
the book itself.— N. Y. Evangelist. 


RETAIL PRICE OF GREAT SENATORS,” $1.00. 

For sale by all Booksellers, or sent, postpaid, on receipt of 
price, by 

ROBERT BONNER’S SONS, Publishers, 

Corner William and Spruce Streets, New York. 


MISS LIBBEY’S NEW NOVEL. 


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ROBEET BONNER’S SONS, Publishers, 

Cor. William and Spruce Sts., New York. 


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